She Who Never Stops
by EGB Fan
Summary: Slimer's gone missing, and the Ghostbusters have some unwanted visitors appearing in their basement as if from nowhere. When one of them insists that he can help, they can only hope he knows what he's talking about.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **_Extreme Ghostbusters _© Jeff Kline, Richard Raynis, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. _Danny Phantom _© Butch Hartman. All characters were created by these artists respectively, with the exception of the Erinyes or Furies, which originate in Greco-Roman mythology and have been developed by the author in compliance with the artistic stylings of Butch Hartman.

_Extreme Ghostbusters/Danny Phantom: _**She Who Never Stops**

Part 1

"Have any of you guys seen Slimer?"

"Good morning, Janine," Garrett Miller returned pointedly. He wasn't even out of the car yet - he was waiting for someone to pass him his wheelchair.

"We just got here," added Roland Jackson, who was at that very moment unloading the chair from the boot of his blue Mustang. "Has he gone missing?"

"Don't worry, Janine, he'll show up," Kylie Griffin said bracingly.

"Or we might get lucky and he won't," added the fourth and final member of the newly arrived company, Eduardo Rivera.

Janine Melnitz scowled at him, and then said, "We haven't seen him all morning. Egon's getting really worried."

As if on cue, Dr. Egon Spengler appeared at the top of the stairs and started to descend, frowning at the PKE meter in his hand. "The worrying thing," he said, apparently picking up a conversation with Janine where they had left it, "is that I can't pick his PK trail up anywhere. He must have been gone for hours - possibly all night."

Roland began to look worried as well. "That's not like Slimer," he said.

"Well," said Garrett (now out of the car and in his chair), "standing around here talking about it won't find Slimer - we'd better get out there and start look- "

He was interrupted by something suddenly shooting up through the floor, moving so fast that it was indiscernible, and then heading for the wall that led directly to the street outside. It disappeared through the wall before anyone had a chance to get a good look at it; however it _was_ immediately obvious that this wasn't Slimer, the Ghostbusters' little green pet ghost.

"What the -?" Garrett began, but was cut off when the exact same thing happened again.

"They almost look human," Kylie noticed, when a third figure materialised through the floor, only to disappear through the wall seconds later. "If a little cartoon-ish. Come on, guys - we'd better get kitted up."

"But it came from the basement," Egon objected, studying his excited PKE meter as he spoke. "How did they get down there without our noticing?"

"Maybe they were here before you," Eduardo suggested, his upper half concealed behind the door of his locker, as he started pulling on gloves and elbow pads.

"Janine and I have both been in the basement this morning, looking for Slimer," said Egon. "There was nothing there then. Perhaps there's been a leak in the containment unit - I'd better go and check."

"I don't ever remember putting anything like _that _into the containment unit, Egon," said Kylie. "Do you?"

"I didn't get a very good look at them, Kylie."

"Neither did I, but they were definitely green and purple, and that last one looked sort of like an extremely unrealistic cartoon of femininity - kind of like Jessica Rabbit."

"Hmm… nothing springs to mind," said Egon. "But obviously they must have gotten down there somehow. I'll go and check the containment unit."

He went, while the four younger Ghostbusters climbed into the Ecto-1, Roland heading straight for his usual position behind the wheel.

"Jessica Rabbit, huh?" asked Eduardo, sitting in the front seat between Roland and Kylie, as they started to move.

"If you saw a woman who looked like Jessica Rabbit just walking down the street," said Kylie, "you would freak out."

"Hey, there they are!" Garrett announced suddenly, from the back of the car, causing Roland to slam on the brakes. "They didn't go far, did they?"

The four Ghostbusters piled out of the Ecto-1, and found that they were on a sparsely populated and rapidly emptying street. The three ghosts - all essentially green-skinned, purple-haired Jessica Rabbits, with subtle differences in their exaggeratedly feminine facial features and classical looking costumes - were just floating in the middle of the road, talking in a huddle. They were human in shape, apart from having no legs, instead of which they sported wispy tails that curled away into thinning green smoke.

"I think they're talking English," murmured Kylie.

They all strained their ears, unable to hear entire sentences, but they all caught a few words of English. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary; the most interesting word anyone caught was "portal".

"Who the hell cares what they're saying?" Garrett asked suddenly, and levelled his proton gun on the three apparitions. "Pardon me, ladies, but I'm going to have to ask you to move it along."

With that he released a short burst of proton fire, which caught one of the spectres on her wispy tail. She screamed and took suddenly to the air, wailing, "Not here as well!"

"As well as what?" asked Kylie.

"Don't ask pointless questions - get after them!" said Garrett, nodding towards the other two apparitions as they started flying back in the direction of the firehouse. "Go with her, Eddie. Roland and I will go after their friend in the Ecto-1."

Roland obediently climbed back into the car, while Eduardo and Kylie started after the other two ghosts on foot. Thankfully they were able to keep the ghostly women in sight until they disappeared back inside the firehouse; they were swift flyers, but it was only a short distance.

"Come on," said Kylie, sprinting through the large double doors into the building, and skidding to a halt at Janine's desk. "Janine, is Egon done checking the containment unit?"

"Yes, and it's fine," said Janine. "Your ghosts both flew into the basement."

Kylie started running again, Eduardo hot on her heels, and descended the stairs that led to the basement. She flung the door open dramatically, her proton gun cocked at the ready.

"They've gone," remarked Eduardo.

"They can't have," Kylie said sharply, making her way down the metal staircase whilst studying her PKE meter. "It looks like they're in that cabinet. That's odd - why would a ghost hide in there?"

She headed over to a tall metal cabinet and pulled open the double doors, holding her gun at the ready. But it wasn't the two ghosts that met her eyes. They had vanished, and Kylie was looking instead at a swirling green vortex.

"What the…?"

Suddenly a familiar childlike scream caught her ears, and Kylie had to jump to one side as something came hurtling out of the portal. It was Slimer, and a few seconds behind him was something else: a white-haired figure dressed in a black jumpsuit. This was as much as Eduardo and Kylie could see before Slimer, still screaming, took his pursuer on a few speedy mid-air laps of the basement.

Finally the person in the jumpsuit stopped and, hovering several inches above the ground, seemed to be trying to catch his breath. This immediately struck Kylie as odd, as this person was definitely a ghost and shouldn't need to breathe. When he stopped flying, his wispy tail was replaced by a pair of legs, with boots the same white as his hair and gloves and the trim on his jumpsuit, whose chest appeared to be sporting some kind of logo.

When he had his breath the ghost took off again, this time flying in the opposite direction round the room, causing Slimer to come to an emergency stop straight in front of him.

"Look," said the ghost, in a voice that sounded to be on the cusp of breaking. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want you to understand that our town isn't an all you can eat buffet!"

Slimer stared at him for a few moments, and then started snivelling and babbling incoherently.

"Oh, don't start that," said his adolescent pursuer. "Why can't you just stay in the -?"

He stopped as Slimer suddenly seemed to see straight past him. He had spotted Kylie, and immediately flew over to her, taking cover behind her head as the ghost boy turned round and started to follow.

"Oh, hi!" said the boy in surprise, coming to an abrupt halt in front of Kylie. "Look, I'm really sorry about just showing up in your lair unannounced like this."

Kylie cocked an eyebrow. "My lair?"

"Only we've been getting a little bit of trouble from your… pet, is it? What exactly is he, anyway - some kind of dog?"

"Um." Kylie turned her head slightly and cut a glance at the cowering Slimer. "Well, he's a ghost."

"Oh, yeah, sure," the ghost boy said. "I mean, we're all ghosts here, right?"

"No," said Kylie.

"What?" The boy blinked his glowing green eyes at her, and then turned round as he suddenly seemed to sense Eduardo behind him. "You mean you guys are alive? Whoa." He turned back to Kylie. "Jeez, I'm sorry, lady. It's just that since you seem to live in the Ghost Zone I just assumed… hey, what _are_ you doing in the Ghost Zone?"

"We're not in any Ghost Zone, kid," Eduardo cut in.

The ghost boy turned around to look at him. "So this is the real world?"

"Yes."

"No way! I never knew there was a Ghost Portal to… to… where are we exactly?"

"New York," said Eduardo.

"Really?" asked the ghost boy. "Do you mind if I go take a look? I'll be right back."

Without waiting for a reply, the boy suddenly seemed to become liquid and his whole body glowed a light blue. His legs disappeared again, and he shot up through the ceiling.

"What the hell was that all about?" demanded Eduardo.

Kylie shook her head. "Seems some kind of Ghost Portal has opened up in this cabinet."

"Why?"

"Well, why not?"

The ghost boy returned, taking on his normal colouring after fazing back down through the ceiling, and said, "Y'know, you might wanna think about changing the calendar in your kitchen - it still says nineteen ninety-seven."

"It _is_ nineteen ninety-seven," said Kylie.

The ghost boy's green eyes widened. "It is? Wow, this is weird." He shot past Kylie, stuck his head into the green vortex and then re-emerged a moment later. "What's a Ghost Portal doing in twentieth-century New York?"

"You tell us," Eduardo said invitingly.

The boy laughed. "How should _I _know?"

"That's your home in there, isn't it?" said Eduardo.

"Well, no, not really. I only came in here to try and persuade your little friend there to stay in the Ghost Zone. I mean, he's cute an' all, but he's been eating everyone out of house and home."

"Has he really?" asked Kylie, sounding distracted as she went to take a closer look at the vortex. "What _is_ this Ghost Zone, anyway?"

"You've never seen it?"

"This portal never used to be here."

"Didn't it?" asked the ghost boy. "I didn't think it was there before, but then there's still a lot I don't know about the Ghost Zone. Go in and take a look, if you like - the coast was pretty clear when I stuck my head in just now."

Kylie looked about to take the boy up on his offer but Eduardo, spotting what she was about to do, lunged forward with a cry of, "Kylie, wait!" He put a restraining hand on her shoulder, and then turned his gaze onto the ghost boy. "Just who are you, anyway?"

"Oh, sorry," the boy said. "I'm Danny Phantom. Hence the logo," he added, grinning and pointing to his chest. Eduardo squinted at the logo, and could just about make it look like a P forged into the centre of a capital D. "And you are…?"

"Kylie Griffin," said Kylie. "This is Eduardo. We're Ghostbusters - and I really think, Eduardo, that it would be pertinent for us to take a look at this Ghost Zone."

"Kylie, you can't just go walking into another dimension!" said Eduardo. "What if you never find your way back?"

"Oh, don't worry, you'll find your way back," said Danny. "I go in and out of the Ghost Zone all the time. Come on, I'll show you. You," he added, looking at Slimer, "stay."

With that, he flew into the vortex. Kylie shook Eduardo's hand off her shoulder and followed without a backward glance. Eduardo stared after her in utter bewilderment for all of half a second, and then resignedly stepped into the portal after her.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Roland and Garrett's ghost took them, interestingly enough, to the nearest law firm. They drew up in the Ecto-1 just in time to see her disappear inside. The two men got out of the car and followed her in, ignoring the protestations of the woman on the front desk.

"Hey!" exclaimed Garrett, catching the ghost's attention in the moment before she fazed through the door into one of the offices. "Come away from there - that's none of your goddamn business!"

"It's a divorce hearing," said the ghost, as though this explained everything.

Garrett blinked. "Yeah, so?"

The ghost ignored him and disappeared through the door. Roland looked reluctant to intrude on whatever was going on in there, but nevertheless he stepped forward and tried the door. It was locked.

"Um." He knocked tentatively, and said, "We're Ghostbusters."

Less than a second later the door was flung open to reveal a harassed looking woman in a suit. She jumped to one side, revealing the scene beyond: a woman in her thirties with a smartly dressed man sitting next to her, both staring in amazement at a second man, who was lying on the floor as the purple-haired ghost tore strips out of his expensive suit.

"ADULTERER!" she screamed.

"L-look, please, it's all right - we're handling it," said the male lawyer. "She's… she's getting the house."

"Is that any compensation for the best years of her life, which she has wasted on this man?" roared the ghost.

"I… I suppose not."

"He'll never commit another crime of passion once I'm through with him!" and she looked about to make a start on his boxer shorts.

"Ok, it's not funny anymore," Garrett said urgently, and scraped the top of the ghost's head with a short burst of proton fire. This distracted her just long enough for the divorcee to slink away, and then the spectre cried out in anguish as she found herself caught in two strong proton streams.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

They seemed to be free-floating, which wasn't a nice feeling at all. Eduardo still had a hand on his proton gun, but Kylie's equipment was all strapped up, apparently forgotten. As well as the endless mass of green around them, there were several purple doors just floating in the vortex. A white vehicle about the size of a helicopter, that looked rather like something out of a science fiction movie, hovered nearby.

"Wow!" exclaimed Kylie. "I never knew…"

"Behind every one of these doors is a ghost's lair," Danny said knowingly. "Your door is right behind us. You can see why I thought you were ghosts - I only know of two doors to the real world from here."

"Can we check some of these out?" Kylie asked eagerly.

"Well," said Danny, "we _can_, but that's not always a very good idea. I don't usually do that unless I'm running away from something. Well, flying, anyway."

"Are we in danger here?" Eduardo asked sharply.

"Not especially right now," said Danny. "Don't worry - I have a ghost sense."

"You have a ghost sense?" Eduardo said dubiously.

"Look, just trust me, I'll know if a ghost gets too close."

"Why has this portal suddenly opened up in our basement?" asked Kylie. "There _must_ be a reason."

"And how do we get rid of it?" added Eduardo.

"Get _rid_ of it?" Kylie turned sharply to look at him. "Don't be ridiculous - imagine all the - "

"Ghosts we'll get coming out of this thing. We've had four already today, Kylie!"

"You have?" asked Danny. "I'm sorry about that. Eduardo's right, Kylie - these things are more trouble than they're worth, to be honest with you. We get ghosts flying out of our Ghost Portal all the time - I've really got my work cut out for me."

"Your work?" queried Kylie.

"I'm kind of a Ghostbuster too."

"But you're a ghost yourself."

"Yeah, well…"

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

Kylie blinked. "Is that all? Or do you mean you were fourteen when you died?"

"I…"

"Where are you from?"

"Amity Park," said Danny. "That's in the real world."

"Kylie," said Eduardo. "We need to be getting back."

"I thought you wanted to close the portal," said Kylie. "Danny, can you think of any reason why there might suddenly be a portal to our basement from here?"

"Well… no," said Danny. "Like I said, I only know of two portals to the real world, and they didn't just open up by themselves - they were created."

"Created by people, you mean?"

"Yes."

"Well," said Kylie, "_I _certainly didn't create any portal. Danny, is there any chance it was someone from your world?"

Danny suddenly looked thoughtful. "I can't imagine why they'd want to do that. Mind you, one of the guys who knows how to create a portal…"

"Yes?" prompted Kylie.

"Well… he's always doing crazy things. He's a little evil."

"Evil?" Kylie raised her eyebrows. "I don't like the sound of that."

"Well," said Danny, "to be honest, I'd kind of like to close the portal too. You guys are cool and everything, but a portal to twentieth-century New York is _not_ supposed to be there. I'd better get back and consult with my associates. You wanna come with?"

"Yes," said Kylie.

"No!" said Eduardo. "Kylie, we… we can't!"

"Sure you can," said Danny. Then, indicating the helicopter-sized vehicle, "I brought the Fenton Spectre Speeder - we'll be there in no time."

"Could you find your way back here?" asked Kylie.

"Oh, yeah, sure, don't worry about that - we've been mapping out the Ghost Zone."

Kylie nodded, and then turned a determined look onto Eduardo. "I'm going."

"You're going to another dimension in order to close the portal. That's ridiculous, Kylie - how do you intend to get back?"

"That's a good point, actually," said Danny.

"We don't need to do anything rash," said Kylie. "We're just going to investigate, and I think the best place to start would be to look at another portal just like ours. Don't you?"

"No, I don't."

"I'm going," Kylie said again. "Come on, Danny - let's check out this Spectre Speeder of yours. Stay if you want to," she said to Eduardo.

Danny zoomed over to what he had called the Fenton Spectre Speeder, flew into it and drove it right up to Kylie. He opened the door for her, and she climbed inside.

"Are you coming?" Danny called brightly to Eduardo.

Eduardo froze for a couple of seconds, and then realised that he was going to have to go with them. He couldn't let Kylie be lost forever in this Ghost Zone, or in Danny's Amity Park either.

"Great," Danny smiled. "Close the door, Eduardo, would you? So what's with all the guns and stuff?" he asked, as he manoeuvred the Spectre Speeder expertly through the green vortex.

"Ghost catching equipment," said Kylie.

Danny nodded. "Of course."

The journey through the Ghost Zone wasn't long, and ended with Danny landing the Spectre Speeder in what looked like a large basement. Whether it was a basement or something else, the room was filled with all kinds of weird and wonderful gadgets that vaguely piqued Kylie's interest. She thought Roland would have a field day in there, and then wondered why she hadn't thought to tell anyone where they were going. Possibly, she realised, because she knew she would have been stopped.

Kylie, Eduardo and Danny filed out of the Spectre Speeder. Looking behind her, Kylie saw a portal exactly like the one in the back of the cabinet in the firehouse basement, only much larger - a good eight or nine feet in diameter. Danny walked into her line of vision and hit a button, which caused a large metal gate to close over the portal.

"For all the good it does," he laughed awkwardly.

Just then a door clicked open, and Kylie turned her head towards the sound. Standing by the door, at the top of a set of stairs, was an extremely rotund man wearing a jumpsuit in an alarming shade of orange.

"GHOSTS!" the man exclaimed, and started charging down the stairs, grabbing some kind of very big gun on the way. "I'll save you, Danny!"

"Dad, no!" Danny's voice exclaimed, and suddenly a black-haired boy wearing jeans and a white t-shirt stepped in front of Eduardo and Kylie. "They're not ghosts. This is, um, Sam's cousin Kylie and her boyfriend Eduardo, from New York."

"Sam's cousin Kylie, eh?" the man said slowly, his eyes narrowing on them with obvious suspicion. "What are they doing in our basement?"

"They're, um… helping me with homework?"

"Hmm." At last he lowered the gun. "All right then, I'll leave you to it. Give me a shout if you see any ghosts."

"I will, Dad."

The large man left, looking extremely dejected, and the teenage boy turned round with a look of relief in his blue eyes.

"What?" he said, catching Eduardo and Kylie's shocked expressions. Then, "Oh, yeah… I'm not all ghost. I should have warned you about that, sorry."

"You're… alive?" asked Kylie.

"Sure am."

"But how…?"

"I have ghost powers," and just to prove it, Danny turned invisible and then reappeared a second later. "It was kind of a lab accident. Mom and Dad couldn't get their Ghost Portal to work, so I took a look inside, and I sort of bumped into the on/off switch and… and now I have ghost powers."

He was answered with a stunned silence.

"I guess it sounds a little far-fetched."

"So that was your dad, huh?" said Eduardo, thinking it appropriate to change the subject.

"Oh." Danny looked over his shoulder towards the door. "Yeah. Look, don't take it personally - he thinks everyone's a ghost the first time he meets them."

"Why did you say he was my boyfriend?" asked Kylie. "He's _not_ my boyfriend."

"Huh?" said Danny. Then, apparently, he remembered. "Oh, that. Well, why else would you bring him down here to see Sam? I had to tell him _something_."

"So you said I was this Sam person's cousin."

"It was just the first thing that came into my head. You remind me of my friend Sam."

"Do I?" asked Kylie. "Why?"

"Oh, I don't know - same eyeliner or something," said Danny, smiling slightly. "You'll meet her soon, if we're really going to try and close this portal - she's part of the team. Come on - let's get upstairs and give her a call."

Danny led them up the stairs and out into the hallway, where he picked up the phone and hit a button on the speed dial pad. Kylie and Eduardo stood awkwardly as they were treated to another suspicious look from Danny's father. Then a woman and a teenage girl, both with red hair, wandered into the hallway and spotted them. Presumably these were Danny's mother and sister.

"Um, hi," said Kylie, forcing a smile. "I'm Kylie, this is Eduardo. I'm… Sam's cousin."

The woman looked suspicious for a moment, and Kylie and Eduardo both felt uneasy, not helped by the fact that she too was wearing a jumpsuit - although hers was an inoffensive shade of blue. Then suddenly she broke into a smile, and said warmly, "Well hi! I'm Maddie, Danny's mom. This is my daughter Jazz."

"I didn't know Sam had a cousin," Jazz said sharply.

"Ok," said Danny, in a tone that sounded like he was wrapping up the conversation. "We'll meet you and Tucker at the Nasty Burger as soon as we can. Bye, Sam." He hung up, and then spotted Maddie. "Hi, Mom. This is - "

"We've met," Jazz interrupted.

"Oh, great," said Danny. "Well, we're going to the Nasty Burger now. I'll be back before dinner, Mom."

"Ok, sweetie," trilled Maddie. "Have a good time," and then she disappeared into one of the rooms of the house.

"Danny," said Jazz, crossing the hallway into her brother's personal space. She was a little taller than Danny, and looked about two years older. "What's going on here? Why would Sam's cousin come to our house without Sam?"

"She's not Sam's cousin, Jazz," Danny said wearily. "You remember the little green ghost who was stealing food? He's from New York, in the past - there's a ghost portal to these guys' basement, and they want it closed. All right?"

"Oh." Jazz brightened visibly. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Well," said Danny, "you _could_ give us a ride to the Nasty Burger."

"All right," Jazz agreed readily. Then, to Eduardo and Kylie, she said, "How much do you guys know?"

"They know everything," said Danny. "Well, they know my secret, anyway."

"Me too," Jazz told them, with a smug little smile.

"Come on, let's go," Danny said impatiently. "You guys can just leave your equipment here. Oh, no, wait - that's probably a bad idea, knowing Mom and Dad. We'll take it upstairs and dump it in my room."

This little detour took less than a minute, and soon they were all filing out of the front door.

"I never tell my brother anything," Eduardo remarked to Jazz.

"Oh, Danny didn't tell me," said Jazz, in a voice that was both high-pitched and matter-of-fact, and could very easily get annoying. "I found out for myself after, oh, about his first eight or nine escapades. But I kept it to myself for a very long time - I knew Danny would tell me when he was ready."

"Jazz, come on, they're not interested," said Danny, as he led them over to a car parked in the street - presumably either his parents' car, or Jazz's own.

Kylie turned to take a look at the house before climbing into the car, and couldn't help gaping in surprise at what she saw. It didn't look like a family home from the outside. There was an elaborate astronomy tower, or something of the sort, apparently just dumped on the roof, which bore an equally elaborate sign reading, _Fenton Works_.

"Is Fenton your last name?" asked Kylie.

"Yes," said Jazz. "Buckle up, everyone - as the driver, I'm responsible if we have an accident and I didn't make sure everyone was wearing their seatbelt."

Danny sat in the front seat next to Jazz, and so Kylie and Eduardo let themselves into the back. As they busied themselves with seatbelts, Kylie said quietly to Eduardo, "Danny Fenton isn't exactly a far cry from Danny Phantom, is it?"

Eduardo shook his head soundlessly.

"But anyway," said Jazz, catching Eduardo's eye in the rear-view mirror, "I _was_ waiting for Danny to tell me himself, but then I had to reveal that I knew when I had to help him defeat an evil version of himself from the future."

"I hate it when that happens," said Eduardo.

Jazz tittered girlishly as she pulled the car into gear. "The Nasty Burger, was it? Really, Danny, you and your friends shouldn't spend all of your free time in that place - I'm sure there are more productive things you could be doing than eating burgers. And it isn't good for you, you know."

"Ah Jazz, come on - it's not like I _have _a lot of free time," said Danny.

"We probably can't stay long anyway," Kylie cut in. "We need to figure out how to close this portal in our basement."

"Oh yeah, the portal," said Jazz, sounding serious now. "Someone must have opened that portal, guys - they don't just open up on their own." She cut a glance at Danny. "Do they, Danny?"

"Not that I know of," said Danny.

"So I think the first thing you should do is figure out who would want to do that. What's in your basement that somebody might be interested in?"

"Well that's easy," said Kylie. "The containment unit."

"The what?"

"It's where we store all the ghosts we catch. We're Ghostbusters," she added.

"Cool!" exclaimed Jazz. "So is Danny. So am I, when he lets me."

"Jazz…" Danny said irritably.

"And these ghosts in your containment unit - do they stay in there for good?"

"Oh, yes," said Kylie. "We go to great pains to ensure they stay safely locked inside."

"_You_ could really do with one of those, Danny," Jazz said brightly.

"Yeah," said Danny, "I know."

It was barely ten minutes' drive to the Nasty Burger, which turned out to be bigger than either Kylie or Eduardo had expected, and seemed to be the hub of all social activity in Amity Park. Danny, after assuring Jazz that she wasn't needed anymore but thanks all the same, led his two guests through the crowded burger joint and eventually came to a stop at a particular table, at which sat a bespectacled black boy in a yellow sweater and red beret and a girl even more Goth than Kylie. This girl's hair was a shiny and clearly synthetic black; she wore purple tinted contact lenses that matched her lipstick, and sported a disaffected scowl. She smiled, however, when she saw Danny.

"Well, hello there," the bespectacled boy said suavely, his eye immediately falling upon Kylie. "Sam said that Danny would be bringing guests, but she didn't mention that one of them was a beautiful woman."

The girl, presumably Sam, put down a burger overflowing with lettuce and said, "Tucker, come on, she's gotta be like eighteen."

"What's four years?" Tucker said airily.

"Yeah, well, as long as she's in Amity Park she's taken," said Danny. "They have to pretend to be a couple."

"Why?" asked Sam.

"Because I told my dad they were a couple."

"Danny, why don't you do the introductions?" said Kylie, eager to get things moving.

"What? Oh, yeah, sure," said Danny. "My friends Tucker Foley and Sam Manson. Guys, this is Kylie Griffin and Eduardo, um… I don't think they told me his last name."

"Rivera," Eduardo provided, as Danny took a seat beside Sam.

"Hey!" Tucker exclaimed suddenly, apparently seeing something that had been hitherto concealed by Danny. "Is Paulina checking you out?"

"What?" said Eduardo, and swivelled round at the waist to find that he was indeed being watched by a dark-skinned girl in skimpy clothes and her slightly less pretty blond friend.

The two girls exchanged a few words, giggled annoyingly, and then the dark-skinned one raised her arm in a wave and shouted, "Hey, _chico! Hace un dia precisio, si?_"

Eduardo, sounding slightly amused, called back, "_Si, senorita! Bonito!_"

"Who are you calling _bonito_?" Tucker demanded, as Eduardo turned back to face them.

"The weather," said Eduardo. "She said it's a beautiful day."

"She's only fifteen, you know," said Danny, almost accusingly.

"Look, guys," said Eduardo, "don't worry - I'm not interested or anything."

"What? Why not?" asked Danny. "Are you blind or something?"

"Well she's a little young."

"And superficial," said Sam, "and spoilt, and shallow, and nauseating, and - "

"I'm gonna go get us something to eat," said Eduardo. "Does anybody want anything?"

Danny proceeded to order a very heavy sounding burger, with fries; Tucker said there was always room for another cheeseburger, while Sam insisted that she was "all set" with her veggie burger - although she seemed to have lost her appetite for it since the Paulina incident. When prompted for her reply, Kylie said, "Just get me anything."

"Oh, Sam, by the way," said Danny, when Eduardo was at the counter trying to remember the order, "Kylie's your cousin."

Sam cut a glance at Kylie, and then said, "Gothicism doesn't run in families, you know."

"Yeah, well, it was the first thing that flew into my head," said Danny. "And besides, my parents don't know that."

"Um, guys," said Kylie. "Maybe we could start talking about this portal?"

"Oh, yeah, the portal," said Danny. "Tell me more about this containment unit, Kylie. Does it have a lot of ghosts in it?"

"Yes, hundreds, probably."

"Dangerous ghosts?"

"Extremely."

"Any number of people could want to crack into that," said Danny. "What about Freakshow? If he had hundreds of dangerous ghosts at his command…"

"Freakshow's in jail," said Sam.

"Maybe he opened the portal from in jail."

"Who's Freakshow?" asked Kylie.

"A crazy guy," said Sam. "He was the ringmaster of Circus Gothika, which I thought was incredibly cool until I found out that all of his acts were enslaved ghosts that he'd been using to steal for him. He did try to kill _me_ a couple of times, but I think he's more interested in money than harming people. _I _think it's more likely to be Skulker."

"He's a ghost who goes around in this hi-tech body armour collecting things," Tucker explained, before Kylie had time to ask. "Rare things, and that includes rare ghosts."

"Like ghost/human hybrids," Danny added dryly.

"But this is all just speculation," said Sam. "We can't exactly go up to all the ghosts in the Ghost Zone and say, 'Excuse me, but have you opened a -?'"

"Ah man," said Danny, catching sight of Eduardo as he approached their table, flanked by Paulina and her friend, both of whom were carrying Styrofoam beverage holders. "I don't get it. Do you see the attraction, Sam?"

Sam shrugged. "He's all right, if you like that sort of thing."

"I was into eighteen-year-old guys when I was fifteen," said Kylie. "It's probably just because he's someone a bit different."

"Oh," said the blonde, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she saw whom she was bringing drinks too. "You're with _these_ losers?"

Eduardo looked at her sharply. "That's my girlfriend's cousin and her friends you're talking about, Star."

"Is _she_ your girlfriend?" asked Paulina, looking dubiously at Kylie.

"Yes," said Eduardo. "There's nothing sexier than a Goth girl in New York."

"Well, there is in Amity Park," said Paulina. "Come on, Star, let's go," and the two girls turned and stalked away.

"What a pair of little bitches!" exclaimed Kylie. "How can anyone be so openly rude?"

"They're not that bad," said Danny, who had his chin in his hand and was gazing dreamily at Paulina's retreating back view.

"How can you say that?" asked Kylie, indignantly. Then, imitating the blond girl's voice, she said, " 'Oh, you're with _these_ losers?' What have you three ever done to her?"

"Whoa, Kylie!" Tucker was staring at her, amazed. "You sounded _exactly_ like Star!"

Kylie had no answer, but they all became distracted anyway when a wispy blue line suddenly snaked out of Danny's mouth for no apparent reason.

"Oh no!" he exclaimed, just as the Nasty Burger clientele all erupted into screams. "_These_ guys again? I'm going ghost!"

Danny then ducked underneath the table; a white flash erupted around them, and suddenly Danny Phantom was zooming through the air towards the exit, where Paulina and Star had been cornered by two purple-haired female ghosts.

"Didn't anyone notice that?" murmured Eduardo.

Kylie shrugged her shoulders, and then said to Tucker and Sam, "You've met them before, then?"

"Plenty of times," said Sam. "Danny was trying to deal with them when your little green food thief showed up. Hey, wait a minute - there's one missing."

"They got into our place earlier," said Kylie, watching as Danny threw some green balls of energy at one of the apparitions, while Paulina gazed on in obvious admiration. "Eduardo and I followed two of them here, but one of them broke away - it could be that our two colleagues tracked her down and trapped her."

The conversation was interrupted as Danny suddenly hurtled towards them, apparently having been thrown. As he approached the table he took on his watery blue form, and fazed safely through the half-eaten burgers and solid tabletop. He emerged again a second later, and shot back towards the ghost who had started harassing Star.

"DANNY!" Sam exclaimed suddenly, and pointed towards a father and his young daughter. They were cowering underneath the other ghost, which had suddenly grown an extra six or seven feet in height. "I think that one means business!"

Danny took in the situation at a glance, and flew over to the ghost just as her eyes started to glow red. He positioned himself between her and the man and child, directly in the line of fire that suddenly shot from the ghost's eyes. Kylie and Eduardo were both worried for a moment, but Danny had the situation well under control. He spread his hands and shielded himself with a green force field, which successfully deflected the fire.

"He's pretty good," remarked Eduardo.

"Mmmm," Sam said distractedly, watching the action with her chin in her hand.

Kylie and Eduardo both blinked in surprise as Danny suddenly produced something that looked very much like a thermos from somewhere inside his jumpsuit. He twisted off the lid and pointed it at the ghost, who was rapidly sucked into the thermos by a glowing green light.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Eduardo.

Star, meanwhile, didn't appear to be having too much trouble with her ghost. All eyes now turned to her as the ghost said, "Ooh, I like your shoes!"

"Um… thanks!" beamed Star.

"They're real pretty," the demon went on, and then suddenly her eyes started to glow red too as she rasped, in menacing tones, "Now hand them over."

"What? No way!" squeaked Star. "These cost my dad eighty-five dollars!"

"Eighty-five dollars for _shoes_?" said Sam. "Talk about a stupid spoilt whore!"

Star screamed as the demon started to grow rapidly taller.

"STAR!" exclaimed Danny. Then, "I mean, WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS!" and he covered the distance to the door in under a second. A moment later, the second ghost was being sucked into his thermos.

"What _is_ that?" asked Kylie, peering at the thermos in Danny's hand as he approached their table.

"This?" Danny looked down at the thermos. "This is the Fenton Thermos. I'll show you in a minute, but first I'd better go someplace and change back because - AAAHH!"

This exclamation was in response to a sudden burst of crimson laser fire that narrowly missed Danny's left foot. Finding it a bit difficult to keep up with all of this, Eduardo and Kylie both turned in the direction of what sounded like an engine noise, and saw a female figure wearing a skin-tight red battle suit and helmet, hovering in the doorway on what looked extraordinarily like a jet-propelled surf board.

"I got you now, Ghost Boy!" an angry voice proclaimed from somewhere inside the helmet, which completely concealed its wearer's face.

"Oh, please, this isn't a good time!" Danny said desperately. "I… I just saved that nice man and his little girl! Didn't you see me? Hey!" as he had to duck another laser.

"Don't give me any more of your bullshit, Ghost Boy! We are gonna finish this right here, right now!"

"Oh no we are not," muttered Danny, and suddenly shot upwards towards the ceiling, taking on his intangible form.

"Hey!" yelled the woman on the flying board, and immediately took to the sky outside.

"Sorry about this," Sam said wearily to Eduardo and Kylie. "It's all go today, huh?"

"Who the hell was that?" Eduardo asked incredulously.

"Oh, just someone who wants to waste Danny," said Sam.

"Why would anyone want to waste Danny?" asked Kylie. "He saves lives - we all just saw him save that man and his daughter, and that anorexic blond piece of fluff."

"I know," said Sam, "it's ridiculous. People around here are prejudiced towards ghosts. Danny finally managed to persuade most of the kids in town that he was on their side after helping us all escape from a ghost pirate ship - long story - but there are some people who just won't accept it. _Especially_ her," she added darkly.

"How come," Eduardo said slowly, "people don't realise that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom are the same person? I mean, it _is_ pretty obvious, especially if he goes under tables to change every time."

"Well," said Sam, "almost everybody in this town is actually pretty stupid. Apart from the three of us, there are only two people around here with a shred of common sense. One of them is Jazz, who I'm guessing you've met, and she figured out Danny's secret for herself pretty fast."

"And the other?" asked Kylie.

Sam tilted her head towards the window just as Danny flew past, ducking an assault of nasty looking circular saws, and said, "Blinded by her own sick obsession."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Janine," said Roland, nursing a full ghost trap as he approached Janine's desk. "We got her, but we couldn't get Eduardo or Kylie on the radio. Do you know where they -?" He stopped short when he noticed the expression on Janine's face. "Are you ok?"

"We have a slight emergency," said Janine. "Come with me."

She led them down to the basement, where Egon appeared to be closely examining something in the back of a little-used cabinet. He was wearing a proton pack, though it was not at all obvious why.

"What's going on?" asked Garrett, following Janine to where Egon stood, while Roland started emptying the ghost trap into the containment unit.

"Eduardo and Kylie came down here and never came back up again," Egon said. "We can only deduce that they have disappeared into this," and he stepped aside to reveal the green vortex in the back of the cabinet.

"_What_?" said Garrett. "What the hell is that?"

"It appears to be a trans-dimensional portal."

"Well what did they go blundering into a trans-dimensional portal for?"

"Maybe they were forced," said Janine.

"The question is," said Roland, as he approached, "how do we get them back?"

"Well we have to go in there!" said Garrett, and starting heading for the portal.

"_What_? No!" exclaimed Roland, grabbing onto the back of Garrett's chair. "Didn't you just point out the folly of blundering into a trans-dimensional portal?"

"But it'll take us to them," Garrett argued.

"Not necessarily," said Egon. "Of course somebody's going to have to go in after them, but no one's walking in there unprepared."

"Who was walking?" retorted Garrett.

"The amount of psycho-kinetic energy coming from this portal," said Egon, "is absolutely… even I'm having trouble believing it. Oh, hello, Slimer," he said distractedly, when he noticed the little green ghoul hovering around his ears. "I'm very reluctant to let either of you… not now, Slimer, we've lost Eduardo and Kylie."

Slimer made a few whining noises and pointed at the portal.

"Yes, they're in there, we know," Egon said shortly.

Slimer made a few more noises, and then suddenly decided to fly into the portal.

"SLIMER!" exclaimed Egon.

Slimer re-emerged a moment later, grinning widely and babbling something that almost sounded like, "perfectly safe".

"Yes, well… I'm not so sure," said Egon.

"We could send Slimer to get them," Garrett said brightly.

"Yeah!" said Slimer, his grin widening.

"I think that would be extraordinarily unwise," said Egon.

"Well," said Janine, "he _does_ seem pretty confident, and he obviously feels quite comfortable flying in and out of that portal."

"Yeah, yeah!" enthused Slimer and, just to prove Janine's point, he flew straight back in again. This time, however, when he returned seconds later, he didn't look happy at all. He was screaming, with his arms stretched out in front of him to propel his speed.

"Slimer, what did I tell you?" Egon scolded, and un-holstered his proton gun. "What's coming?"

Slimer stopped in mid-air and started flapping his arms frantically. He then screamed and zoomed off again as a large green vulture flew out of the portal. Garrett, Roland and Egon all levelled their proton guns on the vulture, while Janine quietly wished she'd brought a weapon herself.

"Ah jeez, that smarts!" the bird exclaimed, flying frantically towards the ceiling as somebody's proton stream caught its tail.

"It can talk!" said Egon, shutting off his proton stream in his surprise.

Roland and Garrett were both getting ready for another attack, but found themselves distracted when a silent green explosion filled the room - and then suddenly Egon and Janine were both lying face-down on the floor.

"What the -?" Garrett spun his chair round, and found himself looking at two more ghostly green vultures. "What have you done to them?"

"Oh, they're just knocked out, they'll be fine," one of the vultures said, as their singed companion landed between them in front of the portal. The ghostly trio then proceeded to have a quiet little chat, surprising Garrett and Roland so much that it didn't occur to them to shoot. Then one of the vultures turned to them and said, very politely, "We've been sent to ask you to accompany us to Wisconsin."

"Please," another vulture added.

Garrett and Roland both blinked. They certainly hadn't expected that. Then Roland at last found his voice, and said, "Wisconsin?"

"Through there," said the vulture that had issued the invitation.

"That portal leads to Wisconsin?" Garrett asked dubiously.

"Well, yeah, sorta," said the vulture. "Will you?"

"Um." Garrett cut a glance at Roland. "Can we just have a moment to talk about it?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," said the vulture. "Look, I really am sorry about those two, but we don't want them to come to Wisconsin with us and they were - "

"Look, don't worry about it," said Garrett.

"If you're sure they're all right," added Roland.

"Yeah, they're fine," the vulture assured him. "They'll be a little groggy when they wake up, but we wouldn't do anything to hurt them."

"We thought if we did, you wouldn't come to Wisconsin," another vulture added.

Garrett favoured them with a withering look, before retreating to the other end of the basement and beckoning Roland to follow.

"Should we enquire as to _why_ they want us to go to Wisconsin with them?" asked Roland, in a low voice, stooping to Garrett's ear level.

"Maybe we'd be better off not knowing," murmured Garrett. "The bottom line is that we _have_ to go to Wisconsin with them - they've probably got Ky and Eddie."

"You're right," said Roland, "and even if they personally _don't _have them, we know they went into that portal. I mean, I'm finding it a bit hard to believe that it's a trans-dimensional portal to Wisconsin, but… we've got no choice, really, have we?"

"Right," said Garrett, and started steering his chair back towards the vultures. "We'll go to Wisconsin with you. But we'd like to leave our boss a note, if we may."

"If you like," said the most talkative vulture. "It's no skin off our beaks."

Minutes later Roland was scribbling a note on a Post-it, leaning it against Garrett's back and saying, "This is completely insane."

"I know," said Garrett, "but let's just go with it. Ok," he addressed the vultures, as Roland set the Post-it on the floor next to Egon's head. "Let's go to Wisconsin."

_To be continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

_Extreme Ghostbusters/Danny Phantom: _**She Who Never Stops**

Part 2

Garrett and Roland were dumped on a cold metal floor. The vultures had absolutely insisted on carrying them, which made them both feel rather like children - but apparently there was a very real danger that the two humans might get lost in what the vultures termed the Ghost Zone if they tried to navigate it by themselves.

"Wait here, please," one of the vultures said, and all three of them disappeared through the ceiling.

"Was it smart of them to just leave us here like this?" asked Garrett. "One or two of them could have stayed to keep an eye on us, surely."

"Well," said Roland, "what can we do?"

"I don't know. I really feel like doing _something_ just to show them."

"Well, let's just take a little look around." Roland, who had been crouching on the ground after being dumped, rose to his feet. "So this is Wisconsin, is it?"

"It's not the _whole_ of Wisconsin, Ro."

"Yes, I know. There are no windows in here - I really feel like we're in a basement."

"Well," said Garrett, "I'm sure they have basements in Wisconsin."

Roland turned round, and caught sight of a large circular vortex. "Wow - that's bigger than the portal in _our_ basement."

Garrett spun his chair around. "Yeah, I guess it is. Maybe the guy who lives here is trying to compensate for something."

He backed away from the portal, turned, and took a look at this surroundings. The room was filled with all kinds of bizarre equipment that Garrett couldn't even begin to recognise, and he was tempted to challenge Roland to tell him what some of it was. Then a silver laptop caught his eye, and he couldn't help noticing the screensaver.

"Look at this," said Garrett, rolling over to the laptop as image after image of the same curvaceous red-haired woman appeared on the screen. "I wonder who she is. She can't be an actress or a model or anything - she's too old and not pretty enough."

"Maybe she's his wife," said Roland.

"But whose wife? Who _is_ this guy? And where the hell did he find a trio of ghost vultures to do his bidding?"

"In the Ghost Zone, gentlemen - I would have thought that was perfectly obvious," said a calm, genteel voice, and the two Ghostbusters looked up to see their host standing in the doorway. He looked to be in his late fifties, with neat grey hair and beard, and he wore a smart and expensive looking suit. "Welcome to my home. I trust you have been well treated. What are you doing?" His voice sharpened suddenly when he noticed how close they were to the laptop. "Stop looking at that - it's none of your business!"

"Sorry," said Roland. "We were only looking at the screensaver - of course we wouldn't dream of looking at your private files or anything."

"She's exquisite, isn't she?" said the man, his expression softening as he descended the stairs and approached them. "Well then - introductions. My name is Vlad Masters."

"I'm Roland Jackson," said Roland. "This is Garrett Miller."

"Indeed," said Vlad, shaking their hands in turn, and holding onto Garrett's for a moment longer than was necessary. "Forgive me, Mr. Miller, but don't you find that contraption somewhat inhibiting in your line of work?"

"No," Garrett said sharply.

"Garrett is extremely capable, Mr. Masters," added Roland.

Vlad smiled. "Indeed. I was to understand there were four of you. Did my servants not bring your two colleagues?"

"They weren't with us when your, um, vultures arrived," said Roland.

"Ah, I see. Do excuse me." Vlad turned round and stalked up the stairs, to stand once again in the doorway. Evidently one or more of his vultures were still outside, as he started saying, "I told you to bring me all four."

"We could only find those two," one of vultures' voices was just audible.

"How hard did you look?"

"Well… they were just by the Ghost Portal. We thought we'd better bring them straightaway."

"Fine," said Vlad. "They're here now, so go back into that portal and fetch me their two companions."

The three vultures flew down into the basement, towards the portal, as Vlad descended the stairs again at a more leisurely pace.

"May we enquire as to where your two colleagues are likely to be?" he asked.

"I think," Roland said carefully, "we would rather not tell you, until we know exactly what it is you want with us."

Vlad's eyes seemed to flicker slightly, but then he said in the same amiable tone of voice, "That is not an unreasonable request. I thought you and I could help each other. You see, we are in the same line of work. This equipment" - he gestured around him - "is all designed specifically for the hunting down and extinguishing of ghosts."

"It is?" Roland dropped his guard, and started to look a little excited. "Well, I'd be very interested to see it. But why leave Egon and Janine behind? Egon _invented_ all of our equipment, or at least co-invented it - you'd be better off talking to him."

"Oh, come now, I am sure your mentor has taught you well," said Vlad. "Is there anything he can tell me that you can't?"

"Plenty," said Roland. "And he'll be interested in what you have to say as well."

"Y'know, Masters," said Garrett, "your three pet birds left Egon and Janine knocked out on our basement floor. They clearly did _not _want to bring them here, but you're making it sound like you're not bothered either way."

"Well," said Vlad, "I _was_ planning a little excursion for us. And those two - "

"Are _way_ younger and fitter than you, buddy."

"Younger, I daresay," said Vlad, "but fitter? Well… I may surprise you."

"What's the _real_ reason you don't want them here?" asked Garrett.

"Oh, all right," said Vlad. "I see I must be completely honest with you. It occurs to me that I may learn more of your methods from you eager young things than from your boss. Rumour has it that he is reluctant to divulge Ghostbuster secrets to outsiders."

"I'm not telling you anything Egon wouldn't want me to," said Roland. "I hope you understand that, Mr. Masters."

"Just how do you know so much about us, anyway?" demanded Garrett.

"You are legendary in the Ghost Zone," said Vlad. "Most of them think you are a myth - at least, none of them has ever found you, much to their relief. Until today."

"Well I'm sorry," said Garrett, "but this whole thing seems very fishy to me. You open up a portal into a place you weren't even sure existed; you send some ghosts to come and fetch us here, apparently with permission to knock out our boss and our secretary in the process… just so you can talk shop to us?"

"Oh, my dear boy!" said Vlad, spreading his hands in a gesture of innocence. "You do not yet understand. Things have been so very difficult for me ever since that ghost boy from Amity Park started terrorising me, not to mention all the innocent people of that town, including two very good friends of mine from college. They are ghost hunters, like myself, and even they cannot defeat him! Ever since that boy materialised, my life has been an arduous quest to rid myself of him. I am growing quite desperate!"

"Which is where we come in," Roland deduced.

"Indeed. Amity Park is a fair distance from here, but I have the wretched boy coming out of his portal whenever he feels the desire to torture me."

"Can't you just close the portal?" asked Garrett. "I mean, you obviously know how to open and close these things."

"Oh, I couldn't do that," said Vlad. "What of my dear friends, Jack and Maddie? They have their own problems with the ghost child. It's a fair way to Amity Park, but here I have a direct link to their basement."

"Well then," said Roland, "maybe you could trap this ghost in the, um, Ghost Zone, and then close both of the - "

"No!" Vlad snapped irritably. Then, more calmly, "Well, it _is_ an idea worth considering, but you will have to persuade dear whimsical Jack. He has devoted his entire life to the study of ghosts, and he started working on that portal twenty years ago in our college days. He will be most reluctant just to close it."

"Twenty years since college?" murmured Garrett, wondering whether Vlad had been a mature student. He _could_ be in his forties, but he didn't exactly look good on it.

"Well I'm sorry if I'm speaking out of turn here, Mr. Masters, but this Jack sounds like a very rash and foolish man," said Roland. "Having a Ghost Portal wide open like that is just like if we created a door in and out of the containment unit."

"Ah, yes, your containment unit." Vlad suddenly seemed to perk up. "I have heard rumours of this containment unit. Do please explain it to me."

"Well…" said Roland, looking helplessly at Garrett and wishing he hadn't mentioned it.

"Oh, come now, Mr. Jackson - a device such as that would be most useful to me."

"Look, Mr. Masters, I really think you'd do better to talk to - "

The return of the three vultures interrupted the conversation, for which Roland was very grateful.

"Where are they?" demanded Vlad, his left eye twitching with impatience.

"We couldn't find them," said one of vultures.

"WHAT? How hard did you look for them?"

"Roland!" hissed Garrett, grabbing Roland's sleeve and pulling him down to his level. "I do _not_ trust this guy. I mean, come _on_! He's been opening up dangerous portals; he's asking questions about the containment unit, which is never a good sign; he has minions who kidnap people for him, and he yells at them when they don't quite manage it - and the guy's name is _Vlad_, for crying out loud!"

"He can't help the name he was given," said Roland.

"No, he can't - but all the other stuff I just said?"

Roland sighed. "I know. You're right. But what do we do now? He clearly doesn't have Eduardo and Kylie, which is what we came for."

"Problem?" Vlad's voice intruded on their whispered conversation.

"Um, no," said Roland. "No problem. Mr. Masters… perhaps you would tell us more about this excursion you have planned."

"Oh, all right," said Vlad. "I intend to take you to Amity Park. We don't have to use my Ghost Portal, if you would rather not - it'll only take a couple of hours by private jet."

"There's a Ghost Portal in Amity Park as well, you say?" asked Garrett.

"There is indeed."

"Right." Garrett cut a glance at Roland. "Take us there."

"Why so eager?" asked Vlad.

"I'm intrigued about this ghost boy."

"Are you really?"

"Absolutely. We've dealt with some tough cookies in our time, Mr. Masters, but the Ghostbusters always win through in the end. Roland and I are most anxious to meet the ghost who can shake off all of _your _arsenal," and he spread his arms in a gesture encompassing the entire room.

"Well," said Vlad, "you will of course have your attempt at defeating Danny Phantom in good time. But first there is somebody I would like you to meet."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"I shove my thermos in here, if you'll pardon the expression," said Danny, causing Tucker to giggle childishly; "push this little button, a-and…" - a few lights flashed, just to let them know something was happening, and then Danny pulled his thermos out of the slot by the Ghost Portal - "they're in the Ghost Zone."

"That's not dissimilar to what we do," said Kylie. She had been only too happy to follow Danny back to the Ghost Portal, considering her original intention of studying it, and Tucker and Sam had insisted on going with them. "Now, about closing _our_ portal. Would your dad know how?"

"Oof." Danny looked dubious. "Maybe, maybe not. But to be honest with you, Kylie, it's not generally a good idea to tell my dad about stuff like this - he always gets the wrong end of the stick and ends up making things worse."

"You shouldn't talk about your dad like that," said Eduardo.

Danny scowled. "I'm only telling you how it is. I mean, come on - you _saw _him getting the wrong end of the stick when you two first arrived here."

"I take your point entirely, Danny," said Kylie, cutting a glance at Eduardo, and finding herself unable to read his expression. "You said there were two people who had created portals before, didn't you?"

"That sounds like something I might have said," said Danny.

"Well, if your dad's one of them, who's the other?"

"Vlad Masters," said Danny. "And if _he_ opened a portal to your world, you can bet you're in for some kind of - "

He was cut off as, once again, his breath turned blue, and then the large metal gateway to the Ghost Zone suddenly slid open. Tucker and Sam both ducked behind the nearest chair as the two green-skinned ghosts from the Nasty Burger, and earlier the Ghostbusters' basement, flew out of the green vortex.

"I'm going ghost!" announced Danny, and this time Kylie and Eduardo were able to watch the transformation. A white halo of light formed around Danny's middle and then split in two, one ring travelling up towards his head and the other down towards his feet. As the light moved over his body, Danny's jeans and t-shirt transformed into the black-and-white jumpsuit; his eyes went from blue to green, and his hair from black to white.

"What's the point of that?" demanded Kylie, backing away as one of the ghosts started heading towards her. "They just flew straight out again! Does that happen often?"

"Oh, sometimes!" Danny called over the noise of the green energy he was hurling at the ghost that wasn't advancing on Kylie. "They usually stay for longer than that, though!"

"That's completely pointless!" said Kylie, beginning to panic now that the ghost had her cornered. "Danny, would you be able to shoot up to your room and fetch our proton guns, please?"

"No need, I can handle it," said Danny.

"WHERE IS SHE?" roared the ghost who was looming over Kylie. "Your friends did something to her, didn't they!"

"Um… probably," said Kylie. "Danny, please, I don't like relying on somebody else to rescue me."

This time, however, she had to put up with being rescued. The ghost suddenly screamed, and disappeared once again inside Danny's Fenton Thermos.

"Danny-y-y!" Sam wailed helplessly. "She's trying to steal my contacts!"

Danny turned, and saw that the remaining ghost was apparently trying to claw out Sam's eyes, while Sam just about managed to keep her at bay by holding onto her wrists.

"Do you _really_ want Sam's contacts?" asked Danny, clearly puzzled.

"Yes!" exclaimed the ghost. "They are so _cool_! And when I've got them, I think I'll have your nifty thermos."

"DANNY!" shrieked Sam.

Danny balled a fist and started to brew up a ball of green energy, but apparently didn't notice the ghost throwing her own purple stream of power at him. Danny was thrown against the wall, and held there as the purple energy moulded itself into a net.

"Oh, for…" Sam let go of the ghost's wrists, ducked out of its reach and picked up the nearest gun. When she fired it at the ghost, the gun vomited out a glowing green net not unlike the one holding Danny, and pinned the ghost to the floor.

Danny, meanwhile, had managed to blast his way out of his own bonds. He approached the trapped ghost, and sucked her into the thermos before she could follow his example.

"I think I'll say it again," said Kylie: "it is just dumb to put the ghosts straight back where they came from."

"Yeah, well, it's the only system we have," Danny said irritably.

"Please," said Kylie, "I would like my proton gun. May I go and fetch it?"

"No, wait there, I'll get it," said Danny, and disappeared through the ceiling.

"He'd better hope his parents don't see him," said Sam, as she dusted herself down.

Kylie looked at her thoughtfully. "Are you ok, Sam?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," said Sam.

"You didn't need Danny after all, really, did you?"

She blushed furiously. "Well… no, as it turns out."

"Oh," said Tucker, "Sam likes it when Danny rescues her, don't you, Sam?"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Sam. "I'm a modern woman - I can take care of myself."

"Oh, look, it's ok," Kylie found herself saying. "I'll bet you've rescued him back a few times, haven't you?"

At this point Danny materialised through the ceiling, carrying Eduardo's proton pack and Kylie's gun, both of them glowing the same watery blue as he was.

"Y'know, Kylie," said Danny, handing Kylie her gun once it had returned to its normal solid form, "this is actually pretty sexist, you having a silly little gun like this. I'm sure Sam doesn't approve."

"Perhaps," said Sam, "feeling the need to have a big gun is something akin to when guys feel the need to have a big car."

"Oh, hey, look, we just use what we're given," Eduardo said hastily.

"Danny," said Kylie. "You can carry solid objects through walls and ceilings."

"Yeah, I know," said Danny.

"Well… ghosts can't do that where we come from."

"Oh, can't they?" said Danny. "We all can around here. And I can make things invisible just by touching them too."

"That includes people," added Sam. "Why don't you show them, Danny?" and she held out her hand invitingly.

Danny looked at her blankly, and shrugged. "Ok."

He took Sam's hand, and a moment later they both disappeared. Eduardo, Kylie and Tucker waited for a few seconds in expectant silence, and then Danny flew in through the wall carrying an intangible and slightly flustered looking Sam in his arms.

"There," he said, "easy," and dumped Sam heavily in a chair next to a desk, which happened to hold a computer on it.

Kylie shot Sam a sympathetic look, noticing the sour expression on her face. She tried giving her an encouraging smile, but Sam didn't seem to notice.

"Anyway," said Danny, whipping out the Fenton Thermos again, "what are we gonna do with these guys? It seems pretty pointless just dumping them back in the Ghost Zone if they can just fly straight out again."

"When _we're_ having a problem trapping ghosts," said Kylie, "we always do a little research into their history and such. Well, I like to do that whether they're a big problem or not - but my point is, maybe there's some other way to defeat them."

"Cool!" said Tucker, shooing Sam out of the chair at the computer desk. "Now it's Tucker's time to shine!"

Kylie cocked an eyebrow. "You're going to use that thing?"

"Of course," said Tucker, as the computer started to boot up. "How else are you supposed to find out anything?"

"Well," said Kylie, "with books, maybe?"

"_Books_?" Tucker started to laugh. "What century are you living in?"

"The twentieth," said Danny. "Didn't I tell you they're from nineteen ninety-seven?"

"No." Tucker looked from Kylie to Eduardo and back again. "I _know_ the internet was around in nineteen ninety-seven - I was there."

"Were you really?" asked Kylie, who had been quietly wondering just how far in the future she was. "How old were you?"

"Seven, going on eight."

"And did you use the internet often?"

"Of course. All the time."

"Well," said Kylie, "_we_ all grew up without it, and haven't become accustomed to it - we tend to use it very sparingly."

Tucker shook his head sadly. "Thank Bill Gates the nineties are but a distant memory."

"Y'know, Tucker," said Sam, "anyone can put any old crap on the internet - books _are_ more reliable." She then turned to Kylie and said, "I can take you to the occult bookstore if you like - that's always my first port of call when there's research needs doing."

"That sounds great, Sam," said Kylie, and meant it. Amity Park was a pretty bizarre place - it would be nice to find something safe and familiar like books in it. "Eduardo, are you coming with us?"

"Actually," said Eduardo, "I was just thinking about checking back with HQ. They don't actually know where we are, Kylie."

"You can jump in the Spectre Speeder with me, then," said Danny, suddenly adopting a look of determination that came as a surprise to his two guests - they hadn't seen any such fortitude in his character before. "I'm going to take a little trip to Wisconsin to ask a certain person if he's been opening up any portals to the past."

"Danny, no!" exclaimed Sam, lunging towards him and grabbing both of his elbows. "You can't go to Vlad - I don't want you getting hurt."

"Sam, chillax, I'll be fine," Danny said breezily, shaking her hands off him.

"But you _always_ get hurt when meet Vlad. And I mean seriously hurt. Screaming in agony hurt. Weak to the point of being unable to transform hurt!"

"That actually doesn't sound like a good idea, Danny," Kylie had to agree.

Danny sighed heavily. "Look," he said, "I've dealt with Vlad plenty of times in the past. I'll be fine, Sam - don't be such a wet blanket."

"_Wet blanket_?" Sam's eyebrows shot upwards, and then moments later fell into a frown. "I'm just worried about you, Danny!"

"Well _don't_!" he cried, exasperated.

"Fine." Sam turned on her heel and stalked towards the exit. "Go get yourself tortured half to death - see if I care. Kylie, are you coming or not?"

Kylie and Eduardo exchanged a look of bewilderment, and then Kylie hastily followed Sam out of the basement. That girl was clearly in no mood to be argued with.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"All right, so how do you wanna play this?" asked Danny, as he drove himself and Eduardo through the Ghost Zone. "Shall I drop you off and then go and confront Vlad and then pick you up again? Or would you rather just stay home once you're there?"

Tempting as it was to say yes, Eduardo said instead, "I don't wanna leave Kylie."

"Oh yes?" Danny cut him a knowing look. "So is there _really_ nothing sexier than a Goth girl in New York?"

"Not as a general rule."

"She _is_ pretty cute."

"I hadn't noticed."

"No?" said Danny. "Well, I'd take another look if I were you."

Eduardo, deciding to kill that particular conversation, asked, "So who's Vlad?"

"Vlad," said Danny, "is my arch-nemesis. Do you guys have an arch-nemesis?"

"No."

"Well I do, and Vlad's it."

"Look, Danny," said Eduardo, who seemed to be receiving an unexpected visit from his conscience. He didn't like the thought of facing Danny's arch-nemesis, but even so, the kid _was_ only fourteen. "I don't think I should let you go to this Vlad all by yourself."

"Dude," said Danny, "I can handle Vlad. We've faced each other a ton of times."

"But Sam said he - "

"Sam thinks she knows a hell of a lot more than she does, when actually she's hardly ever even _there_ when I have to fight Vlad. I know how to handle him."

"She said something about screaming in agony and not being able to transform."

"I can handle Vlad, all right? How many more times? Look, he's just… he's just an old friend of Mom and Dad's from college."

Eduardo blinked. "Is that all?"

Danny's entire body seemed to stiffen. "Yes."

"What's his beef with you?"

"Well, just… he's got this huge grudge against Dad because he… well, he married my mom, and Vlad's kind of in love with her, which is totally gross, but there it is."

"How is that _your_ fault?" asked Eduardo.

"It's not."

"Then why -?"

"Dude, jeez, can't you just let it die?" Danny said shrilly. "He knows about my ghost powers, all right? He's old and bitter and he's made a few evil plans in the past that I've been able to thwart using my ghost powers, and now he hates me. Right, here we are, your door. I think." He brought the Spectre Speeder to an abrupt halt in front of one of the numerous purple doors adorning the Ghost Zone. "You go in there and let whoever the hell it is know what's been going on, and I'll go and confront Vlad, and then I'll come back and pick you up as soon as I can. Ok?"

"But Danny," said Eduardo, "I don't you like you - "

"You can't stop me."

He looked at Danny, and saw a face that broached no argument - and suddenly Eduardo remembered being babied when he was fourteen. He remembered how much he had hated it - he'd _never _liked being told what to do. So what should he say to Danny now? Be careful? No, better not.

"Good luck."

Danny smiled slightly. "Thanks."

Eduardo climbed out of the Spectre Speeder and reached for the purple door. In the instant before he pulled it open, a horrible thought flashed through his mind. What if Danny's altercation with Vlad, for whatever reason, led to the portal being closed? Kylie might - no - _would_ be stuck in twenty-first century Amity Park forever.

Instinctively Eduardo turned round, and could no longer see the Spectre Speeder. He couldn't call Danny back, so clearly he was just going to have to hope for the best. There was nothing for it now but to pull open the door and head back into the firehouse basement. If it was there. He'd hardly heard them before, but now Danny's words suddenly rang in Eduardo's head:_ "Right, here we are, your door. I think." _ Oh God. Bracing himself for the worst, Eduardo pulled open the purple door.

He was momentarily relieved when he found the familiar basement on the other side, but began to panic a moment later when he saw Egon and Janine both slumped on the floor. He went over to Janine, who happened to be slightly nearer, shook her, and then took the glove from his right hand and placed his palm in front of her mouth. He exhaled heavily when he felt that she was still breathing. Then he happened to look up and noticed, for the first time, Slimer, who was hovering around and looking faintly concerned.

"Slimer, what the hell happened?" said Eduardo. "Can't you _do _something about this?"

Slimer looked indignant, babbled for a few seconds, and then picked up the Post-it next to Egon's head. He handed it to Eduardo, who recognised Roland's handwriting at once, and began to read what he had to say:

_Have gone into portal with three ghost vultures. Seem friendly enough. Want to take us to Wisconsin(??). Will return ASAP with K + E. Best if you don't follow. (Vultures knocked you out and insist you'll be ok - sorry about that.)_

Eduardo blinked at the note, and then looked back up at Slimer. "Ghost vultures? _Wisconsin_? What the hell…?"

At that moment Janine started to come round, quickly copied by Egon. They both sat up and blinked a few times, with Eduardo staring at them expectantly. It seemed a while before either of them said anything. Then finally, Janine spoke.

"Eduardo! You're ok! What happened? Where's Kylie? What happened to Roland and Garrett?"

"Not forgetting the vulture ghosts," added Egon.

Eduardo handed Janine the Post-it. She read it quickly, shook her head in bewilderment and then handed it to Egon. His immediate response was, "Wisconsin?"

"Don't ask me," said Eduardo. "I haven't seen them since this morning."

"Well," said Egon, "you're here, so let's deal with that first and foremost. Do you know where Kylie is?"

"Yes," said Eduardo. "She's safe. For now, at least."

"Perhaps," said Egon, "you had better tell us what's been going on."

Eduardo began his story with the disappearance of the Jessica Rabbit-esque woman into the portal, and the emergence of Danny Phantom moments later. Egon became slightly angry when he learned of the decision to follow Danny to Amity Park, but Janine leapt to Eduardo's defence by pointing out how rash Kylie could be when she wanted to, and adding, "You were right to follow her."

Eduardo was then treated to a diverse medley of facial expressions as he continued his story. When he explained as best he could about Danny being half ghost, Egon looked rather as though he wanted to believe it, but was reluctant to do so. Eduardo began to sound slightly dubious himself when he came to tell them about Danny's encounters in the Nasty Burger, but Egon began to perk up when the story moved back to the basement and all of Danny's parents' ghost hunting equipment.

"I should be most interested to meet this Mr. and Mrs. Fenton," he said.

"That's nice, Egon, isn't it?" remarked Janine. "A happily married couple fighting ghosts together."

"Must be tough on Danny," said Eduardo, "being half ghost, and his parents hating ghosts so much."

"Don't they know?" asked Janine.

Eduardo thought for a moment. He hadn't been told directly whether Jack and Maddie knew their son's secret; but then he remembered their cover story, and the apparent need for discretion until they were alone with Jazz, and said, "No."

"AAAHH!" Slimer suddenly screamed, and ducked behind Egon and Janine, both of whom were staring past Eduardo in astonishment.

Eduardo turned and saw Danny, in his human form, sauntering out of the portal. His arms were folded across his chest, clutching some kind of antiquated looking book.

"That was fast," said Eduardo.

"He wasn't there," said Danny.

"Oh, well… this is Egon and Janine," said Eduardo. "Guys, this is Danny."

"The half ghost?" Egon raised his eyebrows. "Are you _really_ half ghost, Danny?"

Danny blinked. "Yes."

"I wonder, may I have a demonstra- "

"Egon," said Janine, "there are more important things. Danny, does this mean anything to you?" and she handed Roland's Post-it to Danny.

"No," said Danny. "This handwriting's terrible."

"It says," Egon said patiently, "that three ghost vultures came out of that portal and took two members of my team to Wisconsin."

"Oh," said Danny. "Well, that's easy. Vlad lives in Wisconsin and those three vultures are his minions. I met them in his mansion, and they wanted to destroy me and stuff, but a few ecto-grenades soon sent them packing."

"So you're telling us that Roland and Garrett are with your arch-nemesis?" Eduardo asked anxiously. "The one that Sam insists is so dangerous?"

"Yes," said Danny, "they are, definitely, but there's no need to panic just yet - I think they're safe for now. I think you guys should take a look at this," and he held the book he'd been carrying out to Eduardo. "I found it lying around in Vlad's mansion."

"How come it's glowing?" asked Eduardo.

"It's a ghost book."

"A _ghost_ book?" Egon snatched the book from Eduardo's hands and put his PKE meter to it. "Hmm… you're right. How can we be touching it?"

"Humans _can_ touch most ghost stuff," said Danny. "At least where I come from."

Egon looked at the cover of the book, and then at the teenage boy standing in front of him. Unable to resist any longer, he took a quick PKE reading of Danny.

"Dude." Danny took a step back. "This is _exactly_ why I don't tell my parents my secret. I don't want to be treated as _different_ just because I'm half ghost."

"But you _are_ different," said Egon. "How did it happen? Eduardo explained a little, but I fail to see how - "

"Pease don't," said Danny. Then he looked at Janine and said, "Can't _you_ persuade this guy that I'm not some kind of lab rat? You two are hot for each other, aren't you?"

Janine started. "What makes you say that?"

"Maybe you should just take a little look in that book."

The book changed hands again as Janine snatched it from Egon, and opened it at a random page. She flicked through it a little further, and then her eyes widened as she saw a woman strongly resembling herself, elaborately illustrated with fiery hair and ripped garments, falling at the feet of an equally flamboyant misrepresentation of Egon.

"Oh, come on," she said. "Nobody that skinny has boobs that big. Well… apart from those ghosts this morning."

"Yeah, ghosts sometimes do," said Danny. "They can be pretty cartoony, really."

" 'The fiery redhead who suffered under the burden of her unrequited love for Spengler the Great'," she read. "It makes me sound like such a stereotype! 'Here depicted falling at Spengler's feet after the murder of Mary Susannah, whose affection for Spengler drove the clinging and obsessive Janine into a jealous rage.' Well _that_ never happened."

"No," said Egon, "it didn't."

"Well I've only had a flick through," said Danny, "but there's a lot of stuff in there that sounds like a load of baloney. I doubt if Vlad believes all that - he's pretty smart, really - but there _is _something on the first page about how it's myth but some of it just might possibly be based in truth. You know, like when you read a comic book based on Arthurian legend or something? So obviously Vlad decided to go looking for you guys."

"Why?" asked Eduardo, taking the book.

"Well, that's pretty obvious. So you can lock me up in your ghost prison for all eternity."

"Ghost prison?" Eduardo found several references to this phrase on the index page, and turned to the first one. " 'In this dreadful device the Ghostbusters locked away the spirits and phantoms they captured, there to be tortured for all eternity.' _What_? No one gets tortured in there. Am _I_ in this thing?" and he started flicking through the pages.

"Yeah, you're in it," said Danny. "And Kylie, looking pretty hot."

"Oh, yeah," Eduardo agreed. "You'd never catch her wearing something quite _that _skimpy."

"Shame, huh?" Danny smiled crookedly.

"Danny," said Eduardo, not looking up from the book, "you have what my sister-in-law would call a roving eye, don't you?"

"What makes you say that?" Danny said defensively.

"Well - Kylie, Paulina, Sam…"

"_Sam_? Dude, you're _way_ off - me and Sam are just friends."

"Oh, ok," Eduardo said dismissively. "This is a load of bullshit, man. I'm not Spanish, I'm second generation Mexican. And what's Garrett doing walking around like that?"

"Why shouldn't he?" asked Danny.

"He's disabled."

"Is he?"

"Yes."

"Doesn't that make it a bit hard for him?"

"Don't say anything like that when you meet him," said Eduardo. "There's not much of Roland in here."

"Oh, I wonder why not," said Janine, peering over Eduardo's shoulder at the book.

"Well," said Eduardo, "he _is_ kind of boring."

"It says something about this Roland person being the brains of the operation, next to Spengler the Great," said Danny, "so Vlad'll probably be interested in him."

"Who _is_ this Vlad?" asked Egon.

"My arch-nemesis," said Danny. "And if he thinks they can help him defeat _me_, your friends are safe for now. He'll probably give them some sob story about how I've kept him from the love of his life… How gullible are they?"

"Not," said Janine. "Well, I don't think so - but it depends how convincing your Vlad is."

Danny shook his head. "I just don't know, but we're not gonna find out anything by standing around here. Shall we head back to Amity Park, Eduardo?"

"Maybe we should go with you," said Egon.

Danny looked at him sharply. "Why? So you can steal ideas about ghost catching from my mom and dad and study me like some kind of animal?"

"I don't need to steal anybody's ideas," bristled Egon.

"Egon," Janine said gently, and put a hand on his arm. "It sounds to me like you're not needed. This _is_ Danny's territory."

"Thanks," said Danny, sounding touched. "This is _my_ arch-nemesis - I can handle him."

"All right," Egon relented. "So what will you do? Ideally you'll end up by bringing all four of them back and then somehow closing that portal."

"Fine, I will," said Danny. "Come on, Eduardo - let's get back. Y'know," he added, "Eduardo's kinda long - do you prefer something shorter?"

"Not really," said Eduardo, "but you can call me Eddie if you like."

"Oh, ok," said Danny, leading the way back through the portal to the Ghost Zone. "Bye, Egon and Janine - hopefully forever. Egon's a weird name, isn't it?" as he climbed into the Spectre Speeder. "Still, he's a pretty weird guy, if you don't mind my saying so."

"No," said Eduardo, "I don't mind. Garrett wouldn't mind either, but don't say anything like that to Roland when you meet him, and _definitely_ not to Kylie. She's got a thing about old guys with letters after their name."

"Do I detect a note of bitterness there, Eddie?" asked Danny, as he started up the engines on the Spectre Speeder.

"Danny," said Eduardo. "What was with that chick who was attacking you at the burger joint? Ky asked Sam about her, but she didn't really explain very much."

"Oh." Danny suddenly took on a look of deep melancholy, and let out a long sigh. "She's just… a girl."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Vlad's private jet landed soon after the "couple of hours" he had promised. By this time Eduardo was back in Danny's basement listening with half an ear to what Tucker had been able to find out on the internet, but Roland and Garrett couldn't know this. They had no way even of knowing whether Kylie and Eduardo were out of harm's way, and so were anxious to start looking for them.

"Sorry about that," said Vlad, waiting on the ground and not sounding a bit sorry, as Roland struggled to help Garrett out of the plane. "It never really occurred to me that I'd be giving a disabled person a lift in my private jet."

"Yeah, well, maybe that's an issue that needs addressing," said Garrett. Then he said more quietly to Roland, "Maybe we should make a break for it."

"How would _that_ work?" said Roland. "The guy has a jet. And besides, we have no idea where we are, and we don't know where this Ghost Portal is. Vlad must know his way around - I really think we should - "

"Everything all right?" asked Vlad. "You two seem to have a lot of furtive conversations when you think I'm not looking. Don't you trust me?"

"Well," said Garrett, "I don't see why we should."

"That's a fair point," said Vlad. "Let me take you to meet my young friend - I think you'll find that you and she have a lot in common," and he led them over to a parked limousine that neither Roland nor Garrett had taken much notice of upon landing.

"Who is she?" asked Roland, waiting for Garrett to heave himself onto the backseat.

"A ghost hunter," said Vlad, "like yourselves. She is, however, a little less adept at the art of ghost catching than I understand you to be. I am most anxious for you to exchange notes with her."

"Well," said Roland, climbing into the limo after Vlad, "don't you want all four of us to meet her? Maybe we should go to this Ghost Portal you said is around her somewhere and try looking for our colleagues."

"As to that," said Vlad, "it may be better if I go there alone. Jack Fenton is a friend of mine, but I don't want to have to explain you two to him."

The limo had started moving now. Garrett and Roland could only assume that the chauffeur had been given prior instructions.

"How will you explain coming out of his portal with two Ghostbusters?" asked Garrett.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll think of something," Vlad said dismissively. "Are you sure you don't know where they might be?" He had already interrogated his two guests quite severely during the flight.

"No idea," said Garrett. "Like I said, we can only assume they took an early lunch."

"Hmm." Vlad's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "That wouldn't be a coy euphemism, would it? I have read that those two are lovers."

Garrett wrinkled his nose. "Eww."

"Have you?" Roland asked calmly.

"Yes, but then again, your story is quite embellished in the Ghost Zone. I doubt that your Janine really _can_ shoot fire from her eyes."

"Well," said Roland, "metaphorically speaking, perhaps."

"Ah, here we are," Vlad said, minutes later, as the limo drew to a halt in front of a rundown apartment block. Vlad climbed out of the car, waited for his two companions and then entered the apartment block. "I've never visited her at home before - I wonder what I'll say if her father answers the door."

Much like the outside of the building, all the doors lining the graffitied walls looked as though they had seen better days. Vlad eventually stopped at one of these doors, knocked sharply on it and then waited for a few seconds, after which his summons was answered by a very large black man.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Gray," Vlad said pleasantly. "Is your daughter at home?"

"Who's asking?" Mr. Gray demanded sharply.

"I'm a visiting teacher at Casper High - didn't Valerie tell you about me? I've brought these two college students to talk to her about signing up for my business classes over the coming summer. She has a good head for business, I have found."

"Really?" Mr. Gray seemed to brighten. "Well, come in and I'll fetch her, Mr…?"

"Masters."

"How gullible is he?" said Garrett, as Mr. Gray disappeared into one of the rooms of his apartment.

"Well," said Vlad, "you know what parents are like - I imagined he'd like to hear that his daughter is willing to listen to advice about following in his footsteps. They have a very _close_ relationship, you know," he added, somewhat scathingly. "You know the kind of thing: only child, single parent…"

"What happened to her mom?" Roland asked anxiously.

"Hmm… I never thought to ask. Ah, Valerie!" Vlad switched on a smile as Mr. Gray reappeared with his daughter: a tall, curvaceous and very beautiful black girl dressed in tight-fitting lycra sportswear.

"Mr. Masters, hi," said the girl, sounding quite out of breath.

"Sweetie," said her father, "what were you doing in there?"

"Oh, just… you know… working out, trying to burn a few calories."

"You weren't training yourself up for any more ghost hunting, were you?"

"Of course not, Daddy," Valerie smiled innocently, and Mr. Gray seemed satisfied. "I'll take these guys to my room, all right?"

Garrett couldn't help thinking that sounded faintly suspicious, but Mr. Gray agreed, and they all trailed into Valerie's bedroom.

"So who are these guys?" asked Valerie, dropping her innocent girly tone of voice.

It looked like the private quarters of a character from a very intense detective drama. As well as the bare essentials of a bed, desk and wardrobe, Valerie had adorned her room with a lot of rigorous exercise equipment. Perhaps more striking even than that, not an inch of wall was visible behind the newspaper cuttings she had plastered all over them. Most of the cuttings contained a picture of the same teenage boy in a jumpsuit, doing one thing or another: flying, materialising through a solid wall, shooting balls of energy from his hands… The headlines, too, adhered to a common theme: _"Ghost Boy Strikes Again!" "Amity Park in Turmoil as Danny Phantom Terrorises Citizens!" "Casper High Ravens Distraught: Football Field Destroyed by Inviso-Bill."_

"These are the, um, 'Extreme' Ghostbusters," said Vlad, apparently not keen on the phrase. "Well… two of them, anyway. Mr. Miller and Mr. Jackson. I thought you might be able to help each other."

"Ghostbusters?" Valerie positioned herself in front of a large metal frame, jumped up and grabbed the horizontal bar above her head. She started pulling herself up, straining only slightly as her arms supported her impressive weight. "I don't need any help, Vlad."

"Don't you?" asked Vlad. "Then why is the Ghost Boy still at large?"

"He's a ghost," said Valerie. "I can't destroy him - I can only see him off when he starts causing trouble."

"You really should talk to these men about some of their methods, Valerie."

"Oh yeah?" Valerie jumped down, and shot Garrett and Roland a challenging look. "Your methods are better than mine, are they?"

"Mr. Masters," said Roland, "I don't think our boss would like…"

"I don't need them," said Valerie, as she balled her fists and began a heated assault on a punch bag. "I can handle that Ghost Boy just fine."

"Valerie," said Vlad. "A little bird told me that he got away from you again this morning. Outside the Nasty Burger, wasn't it?"

"Well don't blame me, Vlad - this is _your_ equipment," said Valerie. She stopped punching, the sweat running down her arms and forehead, and picked up a nasty looking gun she had lying around. "I sent him away squealing like a piglet with this - I did all I could, but I can't kill him. He's already dead."

Garrett and Roland exchanged a glance. They wanted to trust this girl - she seemed genuinely concerned about the fate of her town, if a little obsessive. She seemed a very strange ally for Vlad to have, but then again, they may have misjudged him. If his story was to be believed, he only wanted to rid himself of a troublesome ghost.

"Listen, Valerie," said Garrett. "We don't wanna step on any toes here, but Vlad could be right - maybe we _can_ help each other."

"We _do_ have a method for containing ghosts on a permanent basis," said Roland. "But I'm still not sure my boss - "

"Maybe your boss would like to meet us too," said Valerie, seeming to drop her guard. "I don't appreciate the insinuation that I'm not up the job, but I guess you can never have too many ghost hunters in Amity Park. That Ghost Boy" - her eyes narrowed, and her grip tightened on her gun - "is going down. Whoa!" as she accidentally brought down some of the plaster from the ceiling with a loud crimson laser.

"Valerie!" her father's voice called from somewhere else in the apartment. "Was that the ecto-gun?"

"No, Daddy!" Valerie trilled innocently.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Sam," said Kylie, thumbing through a book about the history of zombies. "I _like _your bookstore. There are quite a few Goths in Amity Park, aren't there?" she added, as another Goth teenager wandered in through the door, bringing the total number of clientele up to about a dozen.

"Well," said Sam, "they seem to wander in from somewhere. It's weird - I never see them around school. So anyway, how's it going?"

"Hmm…?" said Kylie, stopping at a particularly interesting passage in the book.

"Anything about the three ghosts we had this morning?"

"Oh." She had almost forgotten about that. "No, nothing. They were wearing togas - did you notice?"

Sam shrugged. "Now that you mention it."

"Maybe they're Roman or Greek or something."

"Well," said Sam, noticing the cover of the book Kylie was reading, "they're not zombies."

"Yeah, well." Reluctantly, Kylie put the book down, just as Danny Phantom glided into her line of vision. "Oh, Danny, hi."

"Hey," said Danny. "Find anything?"

"Well," said Kylie, "no, not yet."

Danny laughed slightly, and said, "Tucker was right - computers are way faster than books, and much more interesting."

Kylie scowled. "And much less reliable. Any old whack job can just put stuff on the internet, you know."

"Well, how does this sound?" asked Danny. "The Furies. They have a Greek name too, but I'll never remember it in a million years."

"The Erinyes," Kylie provided. "Yes - that sounds right. Hold on." She moved over towards a bookshelf, picked up something that had _Greek Mythology _in the title and began to thumb through it. "Yes, here we go - the Erinyes. 'Said to have sprouted from the blood of Uranus - "

Danny scoffed.

" - when it landed on Gaia, the earth goddess, after he was castrated by his son Cronos.'"

Sam's eyes widened. "Oh, _cool_!"

"They're supposed to be ugly," said Kylie, "and carry burning brands and whips and have snakes for hair."

"But they don't," said Danny. "They're hot."

Sam scowled.

"Well, never mind," Kylie murmured distractedly. " 'Being born out of the blood of a violent act of betrayal, the Erinyes made it their business to go around wreaking revenge.' There _were_ three, as I recall… yes, here we are: Tisiphone, 'she who wreaks murder' - let's hope _she's_ the one Garrett and Roland presumably trapped; Megeara, 'the envious one' - that would explain why she's after everybody's shoes and stuff; and Alecto…"

" 'She who never stops,'" Danny provided. "See, there's nothing in that book that Tucker didn't find out much faster on the net. Except for the snakes for hair thing. Wasn't that supposed to be that chick… oh, you know, the one who turned everybody to stone?"

"Medusa," said Kylie. "She had snake-hair as well. It's what ugly people had in mythological Greece, apparently."

"Yeah, well - anything in there about how to stop it?" asked Danny.

Kylie smiled slightly. "Garrett says stuff like that when I'm doing research at home. Right, let's see here…"

She was distracted, however, as the door to the shop was suddenly kicked violently open, and once again Kylie found herself looking at the weapon-strewn woman in body armour from the Nasty Burger.

"All right, Ghost Boy, this is it!" the woman declared, and from somewhere behind her back she produced a contraption that made Kylie's eyes widen in disbelief. "You are goin' _down_! And this time, it's for good!"

"Ah man," muttered Danny, and flew into the air, but the ghost hunter had her flying board on her feet and was hot on his tail.

Kylie, thinking only of the device in the woman's hands, ran out of the bookstore and looked frantically around her. There, as she had half-expected, were Garrett and Roland… with an elderly looking man she had never seen before in her life.

"Kylie Griffin?" The stranger cocked an eyebrow as she approached. "Why, what a pleasant surprise. How on earth did you find your way here?"

Kylie ignored him completely, saying frantically to Garrett and Roland, "What did you give her _that_ for?"

"I didn't _give_ it to her," Roland said irritably. "She just sort of… flew off with it."

"She's a wilful young woman," said the man. "My name is Vlad Masters, by the way."

"I daresay," Kylie said curtly, watching anxiously as Danny flew out through the roof of the bookstore and the hunter, clutching one of the Ghostbusters' traps, came hurtling out of the door. They were followed closely by a breathless and anxious looking Sam.

"Vlad!" exclaimed Danny, hovering over the small company for a few seconds before he had to shoot off again, trying to duck a few more of those circular saws.

"Guys, that's Danny's arch-nemesis," said Kylie.

"Yeah," said Garrett, "we know."

"But Danny's - "

"Been telling her some very strange stories, I'm sure," Vlad cut in. "You shouldn't believe everything you're told, young lady. Oh, what's taking that girl so long?"

"She probably hasn't figured out how to open the trap," said Garrett. "We _could_ show her, if she'd just sit still for a minute."

"Kylie," said Roland. "I wish to state now, for the record, that I don't like showing these people _anything_."

"We need that trap for the Furies," muttered Kylie.

By this time a small crowd had assembled. Several cameras were clicking around them - evidently Valerie would soon have a new cut-out for her collection. Looking around her, Kylie noticed a few faces she thought looked vaguely familiar from the Nasty Burger - and then Paulina pushed herself forward.

"KILL HER, GHOST BOY!" she yelled, as Danny deflected a crimson laser with his own ball of green energy (his pursuer had evidently given up on the trap).

"IT'S DANNY!" Danny called down to her. "DANNY PHANTOM, OK?"

"At least people have stopped calling him Inviso-Bill," muttered Sam, suddenly materialising at Kylie's elbow.

"Hello, Samantha," said Vlad.

"Vlad!" exclaimed Sam, apparently noticing him for the first time. "Kylie, that's Danny's arch-nemesis! We have to do something!"

"I don't really see what we can do right now, Sam," said Kylie, wishing there was more she could do to help Danny, as he ducked into an alley full of metal trash cans.

"STUPID THING!" the ghost hunter suddenly yelled with frustration, and threw the stubbornly unopened trap after him. There followed a metallic clunk, followed by a yell.

"Oh my God - DANNY!" exclaimed Sam, and sprinted into the alley.

"GHOST BOY!" wailed Paulina, running in after her.

The ghost hunter, meanwhile, disappeared behind a building, and moments later Valerie Gray emerged from behind it, apparently unnoticed by the crowd. Roland and Garrett watched as she walked towards the alley, just as Paulina wandered out of it shouting, "Ghost Boy? Where did you go?" Danny Fenton emerged from the alley next, with Sam supporting his right arm while he rubbed the back of his head with his left hand.

"Oh my God - Danny!" exclaimed Valerie, rushing over to him with arms outstretched. "Are you all right? I'd never forgive myself if I… I mean, what did that crazy ghost hunter bitch do to you?"

"Chillax, Val, I'm fine," said Danny, blushing furiously as she put a hand on his arm.

Garrett, meanwhile, had been watching this whole scene with the look of someone who can't quite believe the poor quality of the soap opera he's found on TV. He looked up at Kylie and said, "What _have_ we blundered into?"

"Danny's the ghost boy," murmured Kylie.

"Really?" said Garrett. "Whoa. _She's_ the ghost hunter!"

"Aww," Roland joined in, "how romantic."

"More whispering?" said Vlad. "Why doesn't one of you retrieve that trap and show Valerie what to do with it?"

"I'll show _you_ what to do with it in a minute!" snapped Kylie, and strode towards the alley. She swept past Danny and Valerie, who were in the middle of a series of stuttered "I'm ok"s and "Are you sure"s; and Sam, who was just standing there with clenched fists and a twitch in her eye - and finally found the ghost trap nestling among the trashcans.

"This," she said, on taking it back to Vlad, "belongs to us. Now if you'll excuse us, I'd like to take my friends here and discuss _exactly_ what we are going to do next."

"Oh yes?" Vlad's expression darkened. "You do realise, of course, that you'll never leave this place without my help. I could close your handy little Ghost Portal" - he snapped his fingers - "like that. I'd hate to have to do so, of course, without first having a little peek at your containment unit. You _were_ planning on showing it to me, weren't you? Because if not… well, I see no point in keeping that door open any longer."

"Vlad," said Kylie. "Go screw yourself."

"See?" Garrett muttered to Roland, as the two of them began to follow Kylie through the dispersing crowd. "Told ya he was evil."

_To be continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

_Extreme Ghostbusters/Danny Phantom: _**She Who Never Stops**

Part 3

Kylie radioed Eduardo, and was faintly surprised to find that she was actually able to reach him - she had expected him still to be with Tucker in Danny's basement. However they were, Eduardo told her, on their way to the occult bookstore on foot.

"Politely excuse yourself," said Kylie. "Roland and Garrett are here - we're going to have a little talk in the Nasty Burger." Then, when Eduardo asked why the Nasty Burger, she said, "Because it's the only place in town you can find your way to."

Star was at the Nasty Burger again, this time with a large and athletic looking oriental boy, who was trying to persuade her to eat a few fries. Kylie bit her lip as she passed them, feeling bad about calling the girl anorexic earlier - apparently it just might be true.

"So who was that girl with the pink boob tube and the annoying voice?" asked Garrett.

"I think you mean Paulina," said Kylie. "It's hardly a boob tube. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondered," said Garrett. "I mean, she's not someone who could come between Danny and Valerie, is she?"

"_Valerie_?" Kylie looked positively shocked. "They're _both_ the wrong girl for him."

"No way! That Paulina person obviously only likes his ghost half, but Valerie genuinely likes him for who he is."

"No she doesn't. The ghost is a _big part _of who he is, and Valerie _hates_ the ghost. Sam, on the other hand, loves them _both_."

Garrett raised his eyebrows. "And she would be the Goth girl, I suppose. No wonder you're on her side. You feel an affinity with her, don't you?"

"No," said Kylie.

"Really? Only - y'know - she's a Goth who's in love with a guy who, from what you've told me, is maybe a little too insensitive to realise his own feelings…"

"This," said Roland, dumping a tray of burgers on their table, "sounds like a fairly pointless topic of conversation. This Danny's love life is nobody's business but his own - _we_ should be talking about what to do with Vlad."

"Oh, yeah, well - the guy has a good point, you know," said Garrett. "If we piss him off now, we're stuck here. Oh, hi Eddie," as Eduardo approached.

"Good," said Kylie, sliding along her seat to make room for Eduardo. "Now I think the first thing we should do is fill each other in on what's been going on."

"Eddie," said Garrett. "Who do _you_ think Danny should go out with? The pretty one, his best friend or the one who - "

"Wants to destroy him," Kylie cut in.

"You mean Valerie," said Eduardo, much to everyone's surprise. "I don't know. Danny seems really cut up about the whole Valerie thing, and he _did_ say he only likes Sam as a friend - but before he told me about Valerie, I really thought there was something there."

Kylie scoffed. "He's blind - they are totally made for each other."

"Guys," Roland said irritably. "If we don't work out some kind of plan, we'll be able to see for ourselves what happens with Danny and his queue of admirers because we won't have any choice but to stick around."

"Oh, yeah," said Kylie, quietly giving herself a mental shake. What did she care about Sam's feelings for Danny, really? "Vlad wants to see the containment unit. I mean, hell, he probably wants to open it too - we _cannot _let that happen."

"We should just go home," said Eduardo.

Roland shook his head. "No good. He'll just follow us - he can get to the containment unit any time he wants."

"Well, look," said Garrett. "There's a Ghost Portal in Amity Park, right? So Vlad can't be the only one who knows how to create one. He mentioned a friend… Jack Fenton?"

Eduardo cocked an eyebrow. "A _friend_? That doesn't sound right - Jack Fenton has to be Danny's dad."

"Danny has a portal in his basement," said Kylie. "His parents made it, but quite honestly I don't think they'd know how to open one into our basement. They're smart enough to invent ghost-fighting equipment that really seems to work, but at the same time…"

"They're also totally clueless," Eduardo finished for her.

"Well," said Roland, "that's as may be, but there's no harm in asking. Come on." He rose to his feet. "Take us to this Danny's basement."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Danny, Sam and Tucker were sitting on the front step outside Danny's house. All three stood up on seeing the four Ghostbusters approaching, and Danny went to meet them.

"Where have you guys been?" he asked. "I thought you wanted to deal with this portal."

"Not to be rude or anything," added Sam, sounding slightly tetchy, "but that portal being there is no skin off our noses - as long as the green blob stays away - and we _do_ have other things to do."

"Oh, yeah, I can see why he'd wanna go out with _her_," Garrett muttered to Kylie.

Ignoring him, Kylie said to Danny and his friends, "I'm sorry, guys. We ran into your Vlad, and now we've got some problems."

"Vlad?" said Danny, looking momentarily anxious, and then he suddenly seemed to notice his two extra guests. "Who are these guys, anyway?"

"Roland, and Garrett," said Kylie, indicating them in turn. "Guys, this is Danny, Tucker and Sam."

"Hi," said Roland.

"Danny, look, they've got some _really _cool equipment," said Tucker. "Maybe they could take out those Furies if we released them from the Fenton Thermos."

"Hey, yeah, maybe they could - Valerie seemed to think she could dispose of _me_ in that thing," said Danny, looking at the trap Kylie was still holding onto.

"Are we talking about the remaining two thirds of those green girls?" asked Garrett. "We can take 'em out no problem. We've already got one in our containment unit."

"Anything we can do to help," added Roland. "You _have_ been doing your best to help us with this portal, after all."

"Your Vlad was talking about closing it," added Kylie.

"Was he?" Danny's expression darkened. "Well, let's get down to that basement. We can let out the Furies, deal with them and then send you home straightaway."

Eduardo, in spite of being so quiet, was the first into the house even before Danny. Kylie and Roland followed, with Sam close behind, leaving Tucker to pull Garrett up the steps.

"Thanks," said Garrett.

"No problem," said Tucker. "Y'know, it wasn't very nice of your friends just to leave you here, if you don't mind my saying so."

"Not a bit," said Garrett, taking over control of the chair again once they were in the house, and making sure to lag behind the others a bit. "I generally prefer not to be helped, but I've never actually been able to master going _up_stairs on my own."

"But you can go down?"

"Easy."

"Sounds dangerous," said Tucker. "You should get yourself a mechanical stair lift. There's no problem that can't be fixed by technology."

"Oh yes?" Garrett raised his eyebrows. "You're into technology, are you?"

"Yep," Tucker said proudly. "I'm a techno-geek and I don't care who knows it."

"And Sam's the Goth chick who occasionally gets a little tetchy when things aren't going her way."

"Pretty much."

"Weird," remarked Garrett. "Y'know, we met Valerie." Everyone else was trailing into the basement, but he stopped just outside the door. "Twice. Danny knows she's the ghost hunter, I take it."

"Yes."

"But he's got the hots for her anyway, even though she's working for his arch-nemesis."

"Well," said Tucker, "Valerie's pretty hot. I almost took her to a dance once, but then Danny said I had to take Sam instead because she wanted to go, but I wouldn't so he overshadowed me and asked her on my behalf, and away went my clear shot at Val."

"Overshadowed?"

"Possessed."

"Danny can _do that_?" Garrett was clearly impressed.

"Of course he can," said Tucker. "He's half ghost. But anyway, to get back to Valerie, Danny doesn't hold the ghost hunting thing against her - she's just misguided."

"Ah."

"Do you need help getting into the basement?"

Garrett grabbed the wheels of his chair and, grinning, said, "I'm good."

He made his way precariously down the stairs, stopped, and stared incredulously at the sight that met his eyes.

"Eg- "

"Ssh!" Danny was suddenly at Garrett's side. "You don't know him. Roland's Tucker's cousin and he… y'know… looks after you."

Garrett started. "He _what_?"

"I'm sorry," said Danny. Then, catching Tucker's sour expression, "I'm sorry, Tucker - I had to say he was _somebody's_ cousin. Look, your Spengler person ignored my advice and came here anyway, and now my mom and dad are screwing around with the Fenton Portal and goodness knows _what_ damage they might do!"

"Oh, hi - you must be Garrett," said a woman - Danny's mother, presumably - in a very loud and slow voice. "Don't worry - you're in our basement, it's perfectly safe."

"Danny, she thinks I'm retarded," hissed Garrett.

"I'm sorry," Danny said again.

"Look at this, Tucker," and suddenly Jack Fenton was frogmarching Egon over towards Tucker, Danny and Garrett. "We've got scientists coming out of the Fenton Portal now. Isn't that amazing? He _claims_ he's a ghost hunter too."

"I _am_ a ghost hunter," said Egon. "And I am intrigued by this Ghost Portal, Mr. Fenton. I wonder if, rather than closing it at my end completely, we could find some way to - "

"What?" Roland looked scandalised. "I" - oh God, pretending he didn't know Egon wasn't going to be easy - "_assume_ the main objective behind… whatever research you might do… is to protect the human race from ghosts. How is having a doorway into their world going to benefit anything other than your curiosity?"

"He's right, you know," said Kylie. "And I really think you should go back. Someone called" - Danny caught her attention, and shook his head frantically - "I, um, didn't catch his name - but he's threatening to close the portal at our… _your_ end. Maybe you could figure out some way of trying to keep it open?"

"Or not," Danny said hastily, shooting an anxious look at his parents. "You could close it if you wanted to - why should any of _us_ care about some dumb old portal?"

"Well." Egon looked over his shoulder at the Ghost Portal. "In that case…" - he cut a glance at Jack and Maddie, and then looked back at the younger Ghostbusters - "I think you four had better… um… be heading home as well."

"We can't," said Roland. "We promised Danny our help."

Egon cocked an eyebrow. "Does he need it?"

"It won't take a minute," said Garrett. "We'll be right behi-… We'll set off as soon as we're done - we'll be home in no time."

All of the Ghostbusters were beginning to get anxious about Jack and Maddie possibly becoming suspicious, and yet neither of them seemed to be picking up on anything.

"What's it to you if they go home or not anyway?" asked Jack. "You don't even know Sam and Tucker's cousins and their acquaintances."

"That's right," said Maddie. "They're just here to visit family - whereas _you_, on the other hand, are an unwanted visitor from a ghostly dimension."

"Yes, well." Egon was looking from Jack to Maddie, and back again, with an unreadable expression. "All right, I'll go. But I don't like it."

"We'll be all right, don't worry," said Roland.

"How did you find your way here, anyway?" Sam asked suddenly, looking at Egon.

"Oh, yeah, good point," said Danny. Then, cutting a glance at his parents, he added, "Not that we have any reason to suspect you _couldn't_ find your own way through the Ghost Zone. Or… or whatever's on the other side of that portal."

Jack laughed heartily, and said, "Of course you don't, Danny."

"Yes, well," said Egon, looking blankly at Jack, clearly not sure what to make of him. "Slimer was my guide."

"A little green ghost," Jack said explanatorily. "It was horrible, Danny! It was small, but clearly deadly. I almost trapped it in the Fenton Thermos! But then I realised I had a wedgie, so I had to - "

"The Fenton Thermos!" Danny wailed, looking frantically around. "Oh my God, Dad, where is it?"

"Don't panic, sweetie, it's right here," Maddie said brightly, holding up the thermos and waving it around. Then suddenly, looking at her again, Garrett recognised her as the woman on Vlad Masters' screensaver.

"It's open!" cried Danny, running over to his mother and snatching the thermos from her hand. "Dad, did anything… you know… fly out of here when you opened it?"

"I wasn't really paying attention," said Jack. "It was a pretty bad wedgie, Danny."

Danny flinched. "Dad, don't. Well, look, these guys and I have to go… to… Garrett's Care in the Community meeting."

"_What_?" exclaimed Garrett.

"Dude, you remember," said Danny. "At the community centre? You do all that fun stuff, like… like wheelchair racing and… and stuff?"

Sam hid her face in her hands and muttered, "Oh my God, Danny."

"Yeah, right, sure, let's go," Garrett said sourly.

"Dude, wait," Danny hissed furtively, and grabbed Egon's sleeve as he started towards the portal. "You see what happens when you walk into _my_ turf against my advice? You don't _tell_ my parents stuff. I had this ingenious cover story and you almost - "

"Danny, come on," said Sam, grabbing his wrist and pulling him towards the stairs. Tucker followed them up, with the four young Ghostbusters close behind.

"You don't like Egon very much, do you, Danny?" Eduardo spoke for the first time since they had returned to the house.

"I just wish he'd _listen_," said Danny. "I may be young, but I've fought enough ghosts to know what I'm doing, and this is _my patch_. Just because he's some kind of genius or something doesn't mean he can just walk into my house and know exactly what to do when he gets here. Y'know," he added, stopping for a few moments when they reached the front door, "I had a flick through that book, and it sounds like he's pretty insensitive towards Janine. I liked her."

"Insensitive?" Sam cut in. "Insensitive how? Like, she's tried to let him know over and over again that she loves him but he just refuses to see it?"

"Well," said Danny, clearly not catching the irony in her voice, "yeah."

"Eduardo!" Kylie's voice, calling from the street outside, suddenly burst in on their conversation. "Whip out your PKE!"

Danny burst out laughing. "_What_?"

"Dude, there's a time and a place," added Tucker, and started giggling.

"My PKE meter," Eduardo said dully, unhooking the device from his belt.

"Oh, cool!" exclaimed Tucker. "Can I have a look at that?" and he snatched it from Eduardo's hand. "Hey, I wonder if I could get my PDA to pick up ghost energy like this."

"_Psychokinetic_ energy," Eduardo found himself saying.

"We don't go in for jargon here," said Danny, keeping an eye on Sam as she went over to investigate Kylie's progress. "Everything's ghost something. Ghost shield, ghost ray, ghost sense, Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle… We don't _need_ any ghost meter with my ghost sense. Y'know," he added furtively, still watching Sam, "Sam's always telling me what to do like that. She has very clear ideas about how I should and shouldn't use my ghost powers. I mean, come on, I save the town _all the time_ - what more does she want?"

"DANNY, COME ON!" Sam was really having to yell at them, as she and the others were all some way down the street. "WE'VE GOT THEIR TRAIL!"

"What about Valerie?" asked Eduardo, starting off down the street, with Danny falling into step beside him. "I'll bet _she's_ no pushover."

"She's not," Danny said earnestly. "She's a strong, independent, _beautiful_ woman."

"You're really into her, aren't you?"

"Dude," said Danny, "_I _can admit my feelings. Y'know, I'm almost sorry your friends showed up - we'd never all fit in Jazz's car."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, we could be walking for - "

"I mean," said Eduardo, "why did you say, '_I _can admit my feelings' like that?"

"Oh," said Danny. "Well, in that book - " and suddenly a trail of blue breath snaked out of his mouth. "Uh-oh. I'm going ghost!"

He ducked behind Eduardo, transformed, and then flew into the air.

"Danny, we totally saw that!" Garrett called up after him. "You should be more careful - what if there was anyone else here?"

Danny suddenly became invisible; they waited for a minute or so, and then he came back into view, flying towards them from the direction of yet another back alley.

"It's the Furies," he said. "And Plasmius."

Sam winced. "That doesn't sound good. You know how he is about revenge."

All four Ghostbusters wanted to ask who Plasmius was, but restrained themselves as two ghostly forms flew out of the alley. Roland, Eduardo and Kylie started to run after them, while Danny flew. He had to stop suddenly, however, when a black-haired ghost in a white suit suddenly materialised in front of him.

"Not so fast, Daniel," the ghost said, while Roland, Kylie and Garrett all skidded to a halt.

"Where did you send them, Plasmius?" Danny demanded angrily.

"My dear child, where do you think?"

"I am not a child! Let me pass!"

"Sorry, Danny, but I really would rather not," the ghost said coolly.

"You sent them after my dad, didn't you!" fumed Danny, balling his fists. "You lousy piece of…"

He stopped, evidently unable to find any words strong enough, and hurled a green ray at the ghost he was calling Plasmius. Plasmius lifted a hand, on which appeared a square crimson shield, and blocked the ray easily. He then grabbed Danny's wrist, lifted the boy up in front of his face and fixed him with a fanged grin.

"Daniel, your ineptitude never ceases to amaze me," the ghost taunted. "Have you _still_ not learnt? I am twenty years more powerful than you!"

With these words, Plasmius somehow sent visible shafts of fork lightning through Danny's body. The boy started screaming, clearly in considerable pain.

"DANNY!" wailed Sam.

"HEY!" Roland, jolted into action by the sound of Danny's screams, ran towards them. "He's just a kid! Let him go!"

Plasmius stopped his assault and, still holding Danny by the arm, turned a contemptuous look onto Roland. Roland, not to be intimidated, shot a blast of proton fire at Plasmius' chest. The ghost cried out, dropped Danny and was sent careering into the nearest wall - where, on impact, he transformed into Vlad Masters.

"What the…?" gawped Roland.

"DANNY!" Sam cried again, rushing towards Danny's bruised body where he lay, and cradling his head in her hands. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," croaked Danny, struggling to sit up, and eventually managing it. "We have to get to my dad."

"Hey," said Eduardo, looming into view over Danny. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"About Vlad. I asked you who he was in the Spectre Speeder - you said he was just an old friend of your parents'. Why did you lie to me?"

"Huh?" Danny turned his head, and saw that Vlad Masters was strolling towards them, smiling evilly. "Oh. That."

"You didn't _tell_ them?" asked Sam, incredulously.

"Curious," remarked Vlad. "Why was that, Daniel?"

"I'm not going to sit here and explain myself," said Danny, pushing away Sam's efforts to nurse him and rising to his feet. "We have to get to my dad. _Now_."

"And don't even _think_ about trying anything," said Roland, levelling his gun on Vlad's chest as Danny once again took to the air.

"You surely wouldn't do anything foolish, Roland, would you?" said Vlad. "Why, for all you know, I might have closed your portal - and then how would you get home?"

Roland tried not to let his anxiety show. "And what would be the price of our going home?"

"Well, I wouldn't ask you to do as much as trap little Danny Phantom in your… um…"

"Trap."

"I would only ask you to let me go so that _I_ can stop him from doing whatever he plans to do to those Furies, whilst at the same time watching their revenge on Jack."

"No deal," said Garrett, swooping in. "So we have to stay in Amity Park forever. Big deal. There's no way we're letting you treat a fourteen-year-old kid like that. Come on, Ro, let's go."

Danny was way ahead of them, but Garrett and Roland soon caught up to Eduardo, Kylie Sam and Tucker, and were sorry to find that they seemed to have missed quite a lot.

"…So the way Vlad sees it," Sam was saying, "Danny's dad turned Vlad into a freak and married the woman he loved while he was languishing in hospital for all those years."

"What did we miss?" asked Garrett.

"Sam was just explaining the situation with Vlad," said Kylie. "Apparently he and the Fentons were at college together twenty years ago, and Jack somehow persuaded Vlad to stick his head into an early Fenton Portal. Then, not only did Vlad gain ghost powers, but also some kind of… 'ghost acne', was it?"

"So we're told," said Sam.

"That put him in hospital for a while, and then he was living reclusively for years."

"But he's in love with Danny's mom, right?" said Roland. "It sounds to me like he's a very unhappy man."

"He is," said Sam, her expression darkening, "but that's no excuse for all the pain and misery he's caused. Did you _see_ what he did to Danny? And the really tragic thing is that Danny's dad's so blind to what's under his nose that he actually thinks Vlad's his friend."

"Guys," said Kylie, looking at Roland and Garrett. "Sam and I did a little research into the Furies and what they do. Basically their names translate into 'the envious one', 'she who wreaks murder' and 'she who never stops'. We _know_ the envious one is here - let's just hope the other isn't the one who wreaks murder."

"Look, don't worry - Danny'll handle it," Tucker said breezily.

"But what if he can't?" fretted Sam. "We have to get to him as soon as possible. If only there was - JAZZ!"

There was a collective intake of breath as Sam suddenly leapt out in front of a moving car, which screeched to a halt just inches away from her.

"Sam!" exclaimed Jazz, looking understandably spooked as she jumped out of the car. "What are you playing at? I could have killed you!"

"Who cares?" cried Sam. "Jazz, you have to give us a lift to your place, and step on it!"

"But Sam," Jazz said calmly, "we're _at_ my place."

"What?" Sam turned her head, and saw that she was standing right outside Fenton Works. "Oh."

"Kylie," Garrett said quietly, as they all began to trail into the house once again, "the girl is obsessed. Any relationship with her could turn _seriously_ nasty."

"She's not obsessed," Kylie said irritably. "She's just keen."

There was quite a bit of noise coming from upstairs, most probably signifying that Danny had met up with the Furies. Sam hurried in the direction of the sound, while Tucker began to search vaguely around for Danny's parents.

"Jazz, where are your mom and dad?" asked Kylie.

"They're probably still in the basement," said Jazz. She had been cutting a few curious looks at Garrett and Roland, but didn't ask to be introduced. "Let's look. What's going on up there, anyway?"

"The Furies," said Kylie. "Or two of them, anyway."

At that point one of the Furies fazed through the ceiling with her arms full of lovingly crafted and painted miniature rocket ships. She flew out onto the street with them, Danny following close behind and shouting, "Hey! It took me _months_ to build all those!"

"He builds miniature rockets?" asked Kylie. "Aww, that's so cute!"

"I know, it's adorable," Jazz smiled indulgently. "He wants to be an astronaut someday."

"Ky," said Garrett. "I don't know about you, but I only counted one Fury."

"That would have been Megeara," said Kylie, as Sam started coming back downstairs. "So we're missing Tisiphone or Alecto - I wish I knew which she was. Honestly, I'm not sure these _are_ the _actual_ Furies - what would she want with a kid's model rockets?"

"We're going to the basement, Kylie," said Roland, who was studying his PKE meter.

"That thing'll always take you straight to our basement," said Jazz. "You might not find what you're looking for down there, but it's definitely worth a try."

It was worth a try indeed. When Jazz, Sam, Tucker and the four Ghostbusters went down to the basement, they found that the remaining Fury had Maddie bound and gagged in one corner and was currently attacking Jack with one of his own pieces of equipment.

"Jazz!" exclaimed Jack, when he saw his daughter. "Be an angel and pass Daddy his Fenton Ghost Zapper, would you?"

Jazz looked vaguely around the basement, but her attention was soon diverted when the whole room was spontaneously filled with noise and flashing lights. This went on for a few seconds - and then suddenly the Fury was gone, and Kylie was walking towards a ghost trap in the middle of the room.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Jack, as Jazz ran to aid her mother. "That was seriously cool!"

"I think that might have been Tisiphone," said Kylie, picking up the smoking trap. "It's too bad we had to trap her on her own - now we don't have a trap left for Megeara. Never mind - we'll trap her in the Fenton Thermos and take her home in that."

"You're very confident we'll be able to _get_ home," said Eduardo.

"Of course we will. Come on" Kylie started heading for the exit. "Let's get after Danny and Megeara."

Danny and Megeara weren't hard to find - they simply had to follow the green and red ghost rays being hurled over the houses a few hundred yards down the street. Kylie led the way, clutching the full ghost trap to her chest, still going over in her mind whether these disappointingly cartoon-like entities really _could_ be the original Furies.

"Oh, look," said Sam, who was lagging behind, so that only Roland and Eduardo heard her and stopped. "It's Valerie."

"Valerie?" Roland cocked an eyebrow. "Something tells me this might be awkward."

"Awkward? No way! What the hell are you talking about?" blathered Sam, her left eye twitching slightly as Valerie approached. "Valerie, hi! How are you?"

"I'm good," Valerie said awkwardly. "I was just on my way to see Danny - I wanted to make sure he was ok after the ghost hunter incident."

"Oh, he's fine," said Sam. "You don't have to worry about him."

"I'd like to see for myself," said Valerie, beginning to eye Roland suspiciously. "I wondered what had happened to you guys. Is Garrett still around?"

"Um… he's here somewhere," Roland said weakly.

"Ah-ha. Roland, can we have a word in private, please?"

"What's _that_ about, Eddie?" asked Sam, as Valerie led Roland out of their earshot.

"I guess she wonders what's going on here, since Vlad said he wanted us to help her get rid of Danny Phantom for him," said Eduardo. "But if you ask me, it seems like he went to an awful lot of trouble just for _that_."

"Thank goodness you didn't fall for it."

"I think there's more to this than meets the eye."

"I noticed you've been very quiet," said Sam. "You should tell your friends what you're thinking. I _always_ tell myfriends what I think."

Eduardo shook his head. "They're happy thinking they know best. You see that look Roland's giving Valerie?"

"Is he giving her a look?"

"Yes. That's his I-know-best look. He's probably trying to convince her to cut herself off from Vlad, or something."

Eduardo wasn't far wrong. When Valerie had demanded an explanation, Roland had told her as much of the truth as he could without betraying Danny: he wasn't sure Mr. Masters was trustworthy, and Sam and Tucker had convinced him that Danny Phantom wasn't nearly as bad as everyone made out.

"You should cut him some slack," Roland said sagely, apparently oblivious to the increasingly dark look Valerie was giving him. "You know, just leave the ghost hunting to the experts and concentrate on normal stuff."

Valerie raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean, 'normal'? School? Friends? Boys?"

"Well… yes."

"Well," said Valerie, "_first_, Mr. Masters is a _good man_ and I can't believe you'd betray him like this! Second, I'm doing just fine juggling school and ghost hunting and working part-time at the Nasty Burger. There's nothing else in my life: my friends all abandoned me when my dad lost his job and we had to sell the house, _which_ by the way was thanks to Danny Phantom, and boys are a complication I just _don't need_. And third: have you _seen_ what passes for ghost hunters around here? I'm the only one who has any idea what they're doing!"

"You're clearly stressed," said Roland. "I'm just worried about you."

"Well don't be," Valerie said curtly. "You've got no - Danny, hi!" as Danny Fenton approached, clutching the Fenton Thermos in one hand. "I was just on my way to see you. Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm fine," said Danny. "It was just a little bump on the head, honestly."

"But that was really heavy!" Valerie objected. "I mean… it _looked_ really heavy."

"Ugh, this could go on forever," said Sam, beginning to lead Eduardo and Roland to where Tucker, Kylie and Garrett had convened a couple of hundred yards away. "I guess this means he caught that other Fury."

This seemed a sound theory, which Tucker quickly confirmed: "That ghost lady is, once again, in the thermos. So I guess this means we're taking you guys home now, huh?"

"They don't need _us_, Tucker," said Sam. "Danny'll probably just take them home in the Spectre Speeder and then come back and watch a DVD with us. I think this is goodbye."

"Well…" said Eduardo.

"Hey." Danny drew up beside Roland, still clutching the thermos. "Thanks for distracting Valerie for me - it's so much easier catching ghosts when I'm not being hunted. So… I guess this means you guys are gonna head home, huh? Can I bring my thermos? I'd like to transfer this chick to your ghost prison."

Kylie raised her eyebrows. "Ghost prison?"

"Of course we'll put her in the containment unit, Danny," said Roland. "So I guess it's back to your place _again_, then."

"Hey," said Sam, falling into step beside Eduardo as they walked. "What are you thinking now? I'm getting some _serious_ vibes off you, Eddie."

"I'm just wondering," said Eduardo, "where Vlad went."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Egon was sitting on the floor of the basement, consulting his own book, wondering if there was anything he could have forgotten that might be able to help him. Slimer hovered around anxiously, looking over Egon's shoulder, occasionally flying a few circuits of his body and making enquiring noises.

"I shouldn't have let them stay," said Egon. "If there was any chance they might not be able to get back…"

Slimer babbled something, and Egon looked up sharply.

"I'm not sending you in there after them. I don't want to lose all of you."

Slimer looked about to reply, but then suddenly started, and looked anxiously around. He glanced down at Egon's PKE meter, which sat on the floor by its owner, and started babbling again.

"It isn't a lot of use with that portal open - it's picking up ghosts all the time," muttered Egon. "Are you all right, Slimer?"

Slimer didn't answer, but instead flew slowly but determinedly towards the door. Egon watched him go, and then his eye was caught by the portal. He hesitated for a few moments, wondering whether reading his own book was in fact a complete waste of time. He had a feeling that he should be doing _something_ to that portal, but then again he didn't want to risk closing it himself.

Egon then began quietly to chide himself - again - for not making them go back with him. So what if he blew Danny's cover story? It wasn't even a very good one, and both of his parents were clearly without much intelligence - it could hardly matter _that _much. Garrett had insisted that Danny and his friends needed their help, and yet Danny was half ghost himself and clearly used to such problems. He didn't need them, and he shouldn't have asked such a colossal favour of them.

The door swung open and Janine sauntered down the stairs, followed closely by Slimer.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"Terrible," said Egon. "Why didn't I make them come back, Janine? I doubt that boy would stay here and help _us_ if he knew there was a chance he might not be able to get back home again."

"Oh, I don't know," said Janine. "He might, if the mood took him."

Egon looked at her curiously. "What makes you say that?"

"Oh… female intuition." Janine crouched down, very close to Egon, so that he could feel her breath on his neck.

"I _am_ a little concerned about these ghosts," Egon went on. "Garrett told me they've been dealing with the Furies. As far as the legends go, the Furies have never taken their own revenge before, but now that Garrett and Roland have trapped one of them… I suppose that makes it our responsibility. Garrett convinced me as much, it seems. At any rate, I seem to have let them stay."

"You're very noble," said Janine.

"I try to be. But I can't ask _them_ to be noble enough to be trapped forever in another dimension, all for the sake of a… a _teenage ghost boy _and his friends. Janine, I didn't even _ask_ them what had been happening - _why_ they thought the portal was in danger of closing. They seemed to want me to play along with the deceit against Danny's parents - I thought they knew what they were doing."

"Perhaps they do. I'm sure they don't need your help."

"I'm going back in there to get them."

"Oh, _wait_!" cried Janine, rising to her full height as Egon got to his feet. "You don't want to be lost in there with them, do you? I couldn't bear it, Egon!" and she started wringing her hands.

Egon blinked. "Janine, calm down."

"Stay here with me, Egon," she purred, her expression softening suddenly as she draped her arms around his neck. "Let's see this as a chance for us to spend some time together."

"Well, really," said Egon, pushing her away. "You're not very good at this, are you? I imagine that boy Danny's father could do better."

Janine's eyes flashed. "How dare you compare me to that fat useless oaf!"

"Who are you?" demanded Egon. "Get out of her. Show yourself."

Janine's voice suddenly changed deepened as she said, grudgingly, "Oh, very well." She then swayed slightly as a watery blue form trickled out of her, and Egon held out his arms to catch her should she fall. However, she was able to right herself within a few seconds of being released from her possession.

Slimer, who had been watching and listening in silence, screamed and made a quick escape through the ceiling.

"My name," said the ghost who had just left Janine's body, "is Vlad Plasmius. I _was _hoping to seduce you into giving me my way, Dr. Spengler, but apparently you have seen through my disguise. This woman is your only weakness, a certain book has told me - but apparently this aspect of your story is as embellished as the others."

"I know Janine better than that," Egon said tightly, reaching for his proton pack. He had taken it off some time ago, but kept it close at hand - it only seemed sensible, with the portal to the Ghost Zone being just yards away from him. "Now explain yourself. Your name is Vlad, you say. Are you the Vlad that boy Danny was talking about?"

"Oh, I daresay," said Vlad. "He and I _are_ acquainted."

"What do you want?"

"A great deal, but as far as you two are concerned, my demands are simple. I want every ghost in your containment unit in the Ghost Zone. What I do with them after that is my business."

"You want to set them on Danny," said Janine, pointing an accusing finger at him.

Vlad raised his eyebrows. "Many of them _would_ present an interesting challenge for young Daniel, it's true - but I am sure they have other uses."

"We _never_ open the containment unit," said Egon.

"Oh, I know," said Vlad. "But it would be different this time. Here are my terms: I return your friends to you, at which point you and I together find a way to channel all of the ghosts in that device into the Ghost Zone. Once this is accomplished, I close the portal forever, and those particular ghosts never bother you again."

"Is that the only reason the kids are in your world?" asked Janine. "To keep them away while you try to get us to open the containment unit? Well _that's _pretty underhand."

Vlad shrugged, taking no notice of Egon as he slipped the proton pack onto his shoulders. "There was always a chance I might have to use them in this way, as bargaining tools - besides which I _had_ hoped they would at least teach Danny Phantom a lesson from me, if not actually dispose of him. But now - your answer?"

"No," said Janine. "If you knew Egon _at all_, you'd never expect him to even _think _about opening the containment unit.Look," she added, in a calmer tone, "don't tell him I said this, but you would have done better to leave Eduardo here."

"I have considered my plan most carefully, Miss Melnitz," said Vlad. "Rivera, I have read, can be foolish at times, especially when a certain young woman sends a smile his way - but both of them, young and impetuous as they are, seemed to me less likely to see me for what I really am than you did, O Great Leader." He looked at Egon as he said these words, his lip curling sardonically. "I underestimated them all, it seems, and of course I didn't bargain on two of them meeting young Daniel before _me_ - but no matter.

"_You_, meanwhile, Dr. Spengler," Vlad went on, "I had hoped could be distracted as easily as a younger man. I know that, if my lovely Maddie asked me to open any containment unit I might possess, I would do so unthinkingly. But this was not to be. It is fortunate for me, then, that your friends have rashly decided to stay in Amity Park. Surely, Doctor, in exchange for their return…"

"No," said Egon. "We are not putting that boy's town in danger."

"But your friends…"

"You're no danger to them," said Egon, levelling his proton gun on Vlad's chest. "Not with you trapped while I go in there and get them myself."

"Trapped…" muttered Vlad, looking vaguely around, and then suddenly he became invisible. Egon was momentarily thrown by this - and then suddenly his eye fell upon the ghost trap close to his feet, which at once became invisible also.

Janine gaped. "What the…?"

"Don't panic," said Egon. "We've plenty of traps."

"Of course," Vlad's voice echoed eerily around them, "I am not simply going to leave upon your refusal. I am determined to have those ghosts, and I do have _other_ methods."

Egon cried out as a crimson laser cut sharply into his arm, severing the strap on his proton pack. The heavy piece of equipment became too much for one shoulder, and he had to let it fall to the floor.

"Open it," said Vlad, appearing in front of Egon… and behind him… and at either side, all at once. All four spoke in perfect unison: "Perhaps _you'd_ like to open it, Miss Melnitz - or at least, you will if I torture this man for long enough."

"I don't think so," said Janine, and shot a blast of proton fire at the nearest Plasmius.

Vlad apparently hadn't expected this; three of his forms began to back away from Egon. The other - the one that Janine had hit - just disappeared in a puff of crimson smoke.

"A copy, I'm afraid," said all three Vlads at once.

Janine shot at one of them, and it disappeared. The next doubled over in pain when the proton stream hit him, cried out, and transformed into the shape of a thin old man. The remaining Plasmius duplicate disappeared.

"Janine, stop shooting!" cried Egon. Then, to Vlad, "You're… human?"

"A powerful weapon," said Vlad, through laboured breathing. "I must see to it that I have one for myself. I didn't quite realise its full force on my first encounter with such a device - the young man only fired it for a split second."

"I don't understand," said Egon.

"Oh," said Vlad, straightening up as his eye fell upon an object some hundred yards away from him. "My book. What a despicable little thief young Daniel is. Well, I have no use for it now - you may keep it. If the wretched boy had only left it where he found it, he might have had a chance to return your infuriating friends to you, but now I think…"

He tailed off, and started backing towards the portal, evidently having decided to abandon his designs on the containment unit.

"HEY!" cried Janine, threatening Vlad again with the proton gun.

"Don't!" Egon put a hand on her arm. "Janine, he's human."

"So what? He's a psychopath is what heis! He'll -!"

Before she could finish, the green vortex in front of them began to shrivel up like a deflating balloon, and quickly disappeared. By the time Egon and Janine reached it, they were beating their fists against the back of an empty cabinet.

_To be continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

**Spoiler warning: **There is a spoiler for the final episode of _Danny Phantom_, "Phantom Planet", in the closing scene of this story.

_Extreme Ghostbusters/Danny Phantom: _**She Who Never Stops**

Part 4

Apparently, Roland's biggest regret was that he'd had so little time in which to get to know Tucker's PDA.

"Dude, it's ok," Tucker said soothingly, as they stood outside the Fenton Portal. "You can get one of your own in about seven years."

Garrett wheeled his way over to them and started trying to persuade Roland that they needed to get moving, while Kylie and Sam shared a Goth moment in the far corner.

"Hang in there," said Kylie. "He's fourteen - of _course_ he thinks he wants girls like that Hispanic piece of ass. But he'll come round eventually."

"Yeah?" Sam cocked an eyebrow. "Well, Kylie, you don't think a Hispanic piece of ass is _always_ a bad thing, do you?"

Kylie blinked. "What?"

"Oh, c'mon," said Sam, grinning. "You can tell me. _I _saw you wanting to punch Paulina's lights out when she started trying to seduce him in the Nasty Burger."

This left Eduardo with Jazz, which was fine by him. True, Danny's sister was a bigger know-it-all than Kylie or even Roland - but she also seemed uncommonly sensible for Amity Park, and he was finding her easy to talk to.

"All this goodbye forever stuff," Eduardo said quietly, shaking his head. "Why are we so sure the portal will still be there?"

"I don't know," said Jazz. "No one's told me what's been going on. Might it not be?"

"Vlad threatened to close it."

"He did?" Jazz raised her eyebrows, and then dropped them again in order to look serious. "That doesn't sound good. But look, there must be a way to open it again. Why on earth would Vlad just _leave you here_? What's he got to gain?"

"Good point. I don't know why we've been hanging around so long though, Jazz - it's insane. What do they think's gonna happen? We'll all dive through the portal in the split second before he happens to close it?"

"There are ways around Vlad, Eduardo. If the worst comes to the worst, Danny can overshadow Mom and then seduce him into letting you go home."

"I'll bear that one in mind," said Eduardo, just as Garrett called, "Eddie! Come on, it's time to go."

"Bye, guys!" Jazz said brightly, as the four Ghostbusters climbed into the Spectre Speeder with Danny. "Good luck!"

"Your sister's nice," Roland remarked, when Danny - still in human form - was manoeuvring the Spectre Speeder through the Ghost Zone.

"Yeah, she's all right," said Danny. "Listen, you guys - thanks for all your help with the Furies. We probably would have figured _something _out, but… thanks."

"No problem," said Kylie. "You _did_ remember the Fenton Thermos, didn't you?"

"Right here," said Danny, reaching down beside his seat and picking up the thermos. "How will we get her from here into your ghost prison?"

"Well," said Garrett, "I guess we'll have to let her out and then trap her again straightaway. The containment unit isn't really compatible with thermoses."

Kylie, Roland, Garrett and Danny continued to chat until Danny brought the Spectre Speeder to a halt where he thought the portal ought to be. He then stared for a few moments, produced a crudely drawn map from somewhere, looked at it, and said, "Oh."

"It's gone," Garrett hazarded.

"Oh, I don't believe this!" said Roland. "We should have taken Vlad more seriously."

"Aw man, this is all my fault!" wailed Danny. "I'm so sorry, you guys! _Now_ what are we gonna do?"

It was obvious, but Eduardo thought of it first, with Jazz's words still fresh in his mind. He said, "We have to go to Vlad."

"Oh, yeah, right," said Danny. "I guess maybe he'll be back in Wisconsin by now - we'll start there. I really am sorry," he added, turning the Spectre Speeder a few degrees.

"It's not your fault, Danny," said Roland. "We should have expected this, really - we've all been very short-sighted."

"How the hell are we gonna get Vlad to reopen the portal?" demanded Garrett, beginning to sound a little panicked. "He'll have a price, you know."

"Of course he will," said Kylie. "Let's just play it by ear, shall we?"

"That's what _I_ usually do with Vlad," said Danny. "It seems to work. Ah, damn it - I should have brought a Fenton Spectre Deflector."

Roland raised his eyebrows. "A Fenton what?"

"Spectre Deflector. It's a belt that repels ghosts. A couple of times I've been able to slip one around Vlad while he was distracted. It stops him transforming."

"We _could_ go back for one," said Roland.

Danny's expression hardened, and his knuckles began to blanche as his grip tightened on the controls. "I didn't say I _needed_ it."

"I… I'm sure you don't," Roland said uncertainly.

"You're being awful quiet back there, Eddie," Garrett remarked suddenly.

Eduardo looked up to see the faces of all three of his colleagues looking expectantly at him, as though in anticipation of some enlightening response. He said simply, "Am I?"

"Yes, actually, you are," said Kylie. "Don't you have anything to say about all of this?"

"Like what? I already said we had to go Vlad."

"That was obvious," said Garrett. "There's more, isn't there? You're _thinking_ something - I can tell."

"So can I," said Kylie. "You're just _dying _to say I told you so, aren't you?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"If you've got something to say, Eduardo…" Roland said invitingly.

Eduardo raised his eyebrows. "You guys _really_ wanna hear this? Fine. I _knew_ this would happen."

Kylie scowled at him. "You couldn't possibly have known for sure."

"It was obvious. That Vlad guy is clearly evil, and we pissed him off - why would he keep the portal open for us? But you three just _couldn__'__t see it_! You" - he gestured at Garrett - "with your we'll-find-a-way-out-we-always-do attitude."

Garrett's jaw dropped. "I never said - "

"And Roland, feeling like you have to try and help that Valerie person who's absolutely nothing to do with you, and feeling responsible for those Jessica Rabbit people - doesn't it ever occur to you that people are capable of solving their own problems? I didn't like to say anything, but hasn't anyone noticed that this place is _full_ of ghost hunters?

"And you!" He swung his gaze onto Kylie. "I am _never_ gonna figure you out! Did you want to see more of the Ghost Zone, or did you just want to find out what happens to your new little friend Sam? Well, whatever it was, you felt certain that Egon would be able to keep that portal open for us, didn't you - because you've got it into your head that he's some kind of magician!"

There was silence for a few moments. Then Danny said, "Look, Eddie, don't blame them - I should never have asked you to stay. _I _know Vlad better than anyone."

"We're all responsible, Danny," said Kylie, and then she looked sharply at Eduardo. "There's no point assigning blame - it doesn't help anyone."

"You're right," said Eduardo. "It doesn't. I know, because whenever _I _make a mistake, _you_ don't let up about it."

Kylie looked away, but Garrett and Roland were still looking indignantly at Eduardo.

"Don't look like that," he said. "I didn't want to say any of that stuff, because I knew it was pointless - _you_ goaded me into it. Why do people always do that - force you to tell them stuff you obviously don't want to? 'Come on, tell me, you _have_ to tell me…' Eventually you tell them just to make them shut the hell up, and then they have the nerve to complain when they don't like what they hear."

"He's right, you know," Danny said brightly, clearly trying to lift the atmosphere. "My sister does that all the time."

Kylie looked at Eduardo and said, "You _know _you could have gone with Egon."

Eduardo said nothing, and dropped his gaze.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Danny parked the Spectre Speeder in Vlad's lab, announced he was going ghost and promptly did so, and then threw the vehicle door open.

"Wait, please," said a voice, and the four Ghostbusters peered past Danny to see that Vlad's three vultures were blocking his path. "Check your weapons at the portal."

Garrett and Eduardo both looked about to protest, but then Roland said, "That doesn't sound unreasonable, guys."

"No." Kylie unhooked her proton pistol and kicked it under her seat. "It doesn't."

"You got one o' them Spectre Deflector thingies?" one of the vultures asked Danny.

"No," said Danny.

"What _do_ you have?"

"A Fenton Thermos."

The vultures looked at each other. Then one of them said uncertainly, "The boss _did_ say _all_ weapons…"

"It's in the Spectre Speeder," Danny said irritably. "I'll leave it there - I wasn't planning on using the thermos for Vlad this time any more than I have the _last_ bazillion times. Come on, you guys."

Roland, Kylie, Eduardo and Garrett shared the same ominous feeling as they all climbed out of the Spectre Speeder and began to follow Danny and the vultures up the stairs. Garrett began asking the nearest person - who happened to be Kylie - to help him up, but one of the vultures intervened by swooping down and lifting the chair up.

"Hey!" Garrett protested.

"The boss said no dilly-dallying," the vulture said, and promptly flew Garrett through the ceiling, both of them - and the chair - becoming the watery blue colour that seemed to signify intangibility.

"Oh my God!" exclaimed Kylie. "That's… that's just wrong."

Danny looked over his shoulder at her. "You saw me do it with Sam."

"That was different," said Kylie.

"What? _How_?"

"Well because it was… it was you guys." She knew it sounded dumb.

Garrett wasn't outside the entrance to the basement when they got there, but rather they found him at the end of a very long walk that involved three flights of stairs. Evidently the vulture had decided to get transporting Garrett over with in one fell swoop.

The three vultures flew over the heads of the party of five, then turned round to hover behind them. "Through there," said one, and they were all frogmarched into a large but sparsely furnished room in whose centre was a black swivel-chair that just _had_ to contain Vlad.

"Ah, there you are," said Vlad, turning the swivel-chair round to reveal that he was in human form, and stroking a fat white cat in a typically villainous way. "I have been expecting you."

"Open the portal," said Danny.

"Patience, Daniel," chided Vlad. "Now then, you four - have you only just tried your portal? What took you so long?"

"We've been helping Danny out," said Roland.

Vlad gave them one of his sinister smiles. "With the Furies, I suppose. Well, enough idle chit-chat. Of course I _can_ open the portal. Indeed, it isn't exactly closed - for, once it is closed, thanks to a certain somebody's thievery, it cannot be reopened from here. It is more… _hidden_. I am quite willing to reveal it, of course - I have nothing to gain by keeping you here. But there will be a condition. You have a choice of two, as it happens - is that not generous of me?"

"What are they?" Garrett asked shortly.

"Option one," said Vlad. "You may take Danny with you, never to return."

"No deal," said Kylie.

Vlad's smile widened. "Option two. You find a way of getting all of the ghosts in your containment unit into the Ghost Zone. Now now, hear me out. As soon as they're in, I shall close the portal, and you shall never hear from them _or_ me again."

"_All_ of them?" Garrett couldn't help laughing. "Dude, that is a _stupid_ idea. At least half the ghosts in there could kick _your_ ass, easy!"

Vlad's eyes narrowed maliciously. "I do not anticipate any ass-kicking, Mr. Miller. But rather, these ghosts shall see me as their ally. Remember" - he stood up suddenly, turning the cat off his lap, and was Vlad Plasmius by the time he was at his full height - "that they and I have something in common."

"They won't all just _agree to be your allies_," said Kylie. "And I'm not just saying that, Vlad, honestly - there are some seriously nasty ghosts in there. They _will_ get out of control. I mean, God, there are probably enough to fill the entire Ghost Zone! And what will you do when they start to cause problems?"

"That is my responsibility," said Vlad. "They will be in our world, not yours. _You'll_ be back home. You'll be free to live your lives. It won't matter to you."

"It'll matter to Danny," said Roland.

"How touching," said Vlad, in syrupy tones. "Daniel is not your responsibility."

"He's right," said Danny, turning suddenly to face them. "I'm not - but you guys _are_ my responsibility. I have to help you get home. Just give him his ghosts - we'll handle it."

"Oh, Danny, no." Roland shook his head. "You won't."

"Vlad," said Eduardo. "What _exactly_ do you think would happen? I assume you're getting all of your information from that book - and believe me, it doesn't tell you half of what you should know about the containment unit."

"Ah, yes, my book," said Vlad. "You may regret stealing that, Daniel."

Danny whipped round sharply. "What do you mean by that?"

"The choice is yours. Listen, I'll tell you what: if you're worried about dear Daniel missing his family, then take his father too, and that irritating sister of his. They can all start a brand new life in nineties New York. Won't that be fun, Daniel?"

"And where's my mom in all of this?" fumed Danny. "Wrapped around _you_, I suppose, satisfying your sick twisted fantasies!"

Vlad scowled. "I don't _have_ any sick twisted fantasies."

"Of course you do, you weird pervert! Let them go home, Vlad - your beef's with me."

"Imagine it," said Vlad, completely ignoring Danny and looking at Eduardo. "You're young, you're virile, you've got your whole life ahead of you, and you have fallen madly in love with some…" - his eyes flickered momentarily towards Kylie - "desirable young woman. And then, just when you are about to confess your love to her, some big fat _idiot_ causes you to be hospitalised with ecto-acne! And then, the next you hear of your lost love, she has married that _same_ big fat idiot and allowed him to impregnate her with his offspring! _Twice_! Is my situation _really_ so unsympathetic?"

"Vlad," said Roland. "I don't know them that well, but it really seems to me that Maddie and Jack are in love. She would always have chosen him, no matter what."

"Which isn't _these guys'_ fault," Danny said hotly. "Aren't we coming off the point a bit here? Ok, so you got your heart broken - that's no reason to go filling up the Ghost Zone with all kinds of problems that _neither one _of us needs!"

"Oh, Danny - you dear, sweet boy," sighed Vlad, sounding genuine enough to take them all by surprise. "I really am sorry that it has come to this - to me wanting to be rid of you once and for all. You are right, of course - it _isn't_ their fault, and it isn't yours either. I want you to know that I understand that, Danny."

Danny blinked. "What?"

"You must remember the early days, Danny," Vlad went on. "I wanted to help you… to teach you how to use your powers as effectively as _I_ can."

"Dude, you wanted to lure me over to the dark side," said Danny.

Vlad sighed. "You are Maddie's child, Danny. All I ever really wanted was to be a father to you and your sister."

The four Ghostbusters, uncomfortably aware of the vultures behind them, cut discreet looks at each other. Things really _were_ starting to get crazy now.

"Well…" Danny took a cautious step forward. "Y'know, my dad let one of the Furies out of the thermos today."

"I would never have done that," Vlad said quietly.

Danny nodded. "I know. Maybe we could… start over?"

Kylie, Roland, Garrett and Eduardo all stared in absolute amazement. There were actually tears - _real _tears - in Vlad's eyes.

"Oh yes?" he said. "And what would be your price? Sending these cretins home, I suppose."

"Well," Danny said warily, "I'd be very grateful."

"Grateful," said Vlad, in a voice choked with some kind of emotion that was hard to place. "Grateful enough to let me help you? To let me be the father you truly deserve?"

Kylie nudged Roland, just because he was close enough for her to do so, and murmured, "Is this guy for real?"

"I don't trust you, Daniel." There was anger in Vlad's voice now, and he was advancing towards Danny. "You are a thief and a _liar_. It would be so easy for you to break your promise as soon as your Ghostbuster friends have gone. You played with my heart once before, remember? You actually put your arms around me, but only as a means of locking me in that ridiculous _belt_ device! You are a cruel and manipulative child. Well, I _won't_ send them home! Let them start a new life in Amity Park. Let those two hormone infested young lovers forget their disagreeable families and start a new one together in this world - they might even end up enjoying it. I do you no favours, Daniel. Now get out of my sight."

With that, Vlad turned away, but Danny quickly caught his attention with an ecto-grenade to the heels.

"No way!" he yelled. "You can't just leave it at that. What the hell is the point of just _leaving_ them here?"

"When they bring me your head," said Vlad, "I shall send them home."

"Listen," hissed Kylie, grabbing Roland's arm. "He obviously plans to keep his options open, so that means we can still get our portal back. Maybe if we just leave quietly, and then somehow find - "

She was cut off by the sound of another ghost ray, which Vlad blocked with a crimson shield from his hands. He then threw a ball of energy at Danny, knocking him to the ground.

"Hey!" said Garrett, beginning to move forward.

"Restrain them," said Vlad, and suddenly they were being held down by the vultures. Roland and Eduardo had one each on their shoulders, while the third vulture had one talon on Kylie and the other on Garrett.

"Like your father, you become increasingly stupider every time I see you," said Vlad, taking a step towards where Danny lay and placing a foot heavily on his chest.

"Stop that!" wailed Kylie. "He's just a kid!"

"Get off me!" said Danny, throwing a ball of energy up at Vlad, which sent him reeling back. Danny got to his feet, and stood poised ready for yet more action.

"Daniel, do you never learn?" Vlad grabbed Danny's wrist and began his trick with the lightning again, which caused Danny to cry out in pain and distress. "How many times must I do this to you before you realise that you will never be a match for me?"

"Let us go!" yelled Kylie, beginning to struggle against the vulture's grip.

"What would you do?" asked Vlad, looking up sharply. "I can do all of these things to you as well, and you haven't even any ghost powers with which to defend yourselves."

"This the most horrible thing I've ever seen!" said Kylie, looking in anguish at Danny's limp body and exhausted expression. "You're completely sick!"

"The guy," panted Danny, "is one seriously crazed up fruit loop."

Vlad's red eyes suddenly glowed brighter. "I am _not_ a fruit loop!"

Danny cried out again as another shock of electricity went through him, and then he transformed into Danny Fenton, apparently too weak to maintain his ghost form. Vlad dropped him heavily at his feet, and held his foot over where Danny's right hand was splayed on the ground. The four Ghostbusters all winced, and braced themselves.

"Don't!" begged Danny.

"You need to be taught a lesson."

"I already have," croaked Danny and, just to prove it, he choked up a neat line of blood. "You're more powerful than me - I get it. Vlad, why are you making these guys watch this? Let them go."

Vlad looked up, lowering his foot slowly, and seemed to consider for a moment.

"Take them out of here," he said at last, to the three vultures.

"Don't!" exclaimed Roland, so firmly that the vultures obeyed. "We're not leaving him."

"Why are you so attached?" Vlad asked irritably. "He's nothing to do with you."

None of them knew what to say, but had no opportunity in which to say anything. Vlad's attention was diverted once again as Danny transformed back into Danny Phantom.

"Let them go home, Vlad," he said.

Vlad, towering over where Danny lay at his feet, said, "I hardly think you're in a position to be giving me orders, Daniel."

Danny propped himself up on his elbows. "_I'll_ help you with… whatever it is you want to do with the containment unit. Just let them go home! You're being much more evil than you need to be - you said yourself you've got nothing to gain by keeping them here."

"You can't help me with that," said Vlad. "You can volunteer to go with them. Take your father and your sister. Leave me with Maddie - _then_ I'll let them go."

"No way. My mom is never going to love you because she isn't interested in sick perverted fruit loops!"

"I AM NOT A FRUIT LOOP!" roared Vlad, this time bringing his foot down on Danny's hand with a truly sickening crunch. The four Ghostbusters and even the three vultures all winced, as Danny cried out in pain. "One of these days, Daniel, you are not going to leave this place alive!"

Danny gritted his teeth, and panted heavily, "Get… the… hell… off… me!"

"This is absolutely sick," murmured Eduardo.

Kylie was shaking her head in disbelief. "I know."

"Guys," Danny said heavily. "Cover your ears."

"What?" said Roland.

"Do it."

Utterly bewildered, they all did as they were told, first having to negotiate the vultures' legs, and the vultures didn't even try to stop them. Perhaps they didn't see any harm in the act. Then suddenly Danny opened his mouth, and let out a truly deafening wail. The four Ghostbusters could all hear it through their hands, and they could feel it too. In fact, the sound knocked them off their feet. The four of them cannoned into each other, sending Garrett's wheelchair reeling towards the door.

The effect on Vlad and his vultures was far worse. They went flying, and Vlad was knocked heavily against a wall while - interestingly - the vultures had the foresight to become intangible before they hit anything. Consequently they were soon out of the room, while Vlad was rendered unconscious.

Danny closed his mouth, collapsed back onto the floor and was suddenly in human form again. Kylie, Roland, Garrett and Eduardo all rushed to stand over him, looking down at his bruised body, his chest rising and falling heavily with the effort to breathe.

"Oh Danny, I want to ask you if you're ok, but it just sounds ridiculous!" cried Kylie.

"It's all right," said Danny, sitting up with some difficulty. "I'm ok. My hand's healed, at least - I was in my ghost form."

"What was that wailing thing you did?" asked Eduardo.

"My ghostly wail," said Danny. "The one power I have that Vlad doesn't. It's exhausting, though - that's why I can't maintain my form just now. Can you guys please help me up? We need to get out of here."

"We have to get you home," said Kylie, slipping her hands under one of Danny's arms, while Roland took the other. "Vlad said there's a way to open up that portal - we'll just have to find it without you. We can't risk anything like this happening to you again."

Danny, getting shakily to his feet, shook his head. "I _am_ going to help you guys, and it'll be totally ok, because we don't need Vlad."

All four Ghostbusters stared in surprise, and then Roland said it first: "We don't?"

"I've been so stupid," said Danny, beginning to sound stronger. "There's someone in the Ghost Zone who can help us. And don't worry - he's cool. Come on." He made for the door, limping a little at first, but quickly getting into his stride. "Let's make ourselves scarce before Vlad wakes up."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Why are you all so quiet?" asked Danny, once they were back in the Spectre Speeder and flying through the Ghost Zone.

"Are we?" Garrett said dully.

"Look," said Danny, "don't worry about Vlad. He does things like that."

"Does he do it often?" asked Roland.

"Well… occasionally," said Danny. "He's very disturbed."

"Clearly," said Kylie. "Doesn't it…?"

"What?"

"Well… why aren't you more afraid of him? I know _I _would be."

Danny sighed heavily. "I can't be afraid of him. I just have to keep on learning and getting stronger. I'm better at handling Vlad than I used to be, you know. One day, maybe I'll even be stronger than him."

"Looks to me like you already are," said Eduardo. "You beat him."

"Yeah, I guess I did," Danny said dismissively. "So, Kylie - are you still curious about these doors? We're going right into _that_ one," and he pointed through the windscreen.

"And there's someone in there who can help us, you think?" asked Kylie.

"I _know_ there is," said Danny, beginning to reduce his speed as he brought the Spectre Speeder towards the purple door he had pointed out. "Have a little faith, Kylie."

With the exception of Eduardo, who was only faintly curious, all of the Ghostbusters were intrigued to know what lay behind the purple door. As Danny flew the Spectre Speeder into this mysterious ghost's lair, they were all overcome with the same ominous feeling, for this place was far creepier than the green vortex of floating doors they had left behind. It was dark, cobwebby and filled with the sound of dozens of clocks ticking. The place was immense, stretching into the distance in all directions, and all around were cogs and pendulums grinding monotonously away.

Danny, however, seemed unfazed. He parked the Spectre Speeder, threw the door open and said enthusiastically, "Come on!"

"He's over the whole Vlad incident, isn't he?" murmured Garrett, as he and the other three Ghostbusters began to make their way out of the Spectre Speeder.

"Seems to be," said Roland. "But how can he be? That was the most horrible thing…"

Once out of the Spectre Speeder, they all looked around for Danny, and eventually spotted him - once again in ghost form - beckoning to them from behind a large golden pendulum. Roland, Kylie, Eduardo and Garrett made their way tentatively through the grinding, creaking and ticking sounds until they were behind the pendulum with Danny, as well as - presumably - the ghost he was so anxious for them to meet.

"Guys, this is Clockwork," said Danny. "Clockwork, this is Garrett, Roland, Eduardo and Kylie. But I guess you already knew that, didn't you?"

The four Ghostbusters all stared at the ghost that was free-floating beside Danny. None of them had known what to expect, but they certainly wouldn't have imagined this. The ghost looked pretty much human; the difference was that he had blue skin, red eyes and a total lack of legs - not to mention that he also seemed to be at least part clock. He wore robes of purple, with a pane of glass at his chest, revealing a swinging pendulum where his heart and ribs ought to have been. He held an ice-blue sceptre in his right hand, the top of which was adorned with a small circular clock face.

"Greetings," said Clockwork.

"Hi," said Roland, and then, "Whoa!" as the ghost suddenly metamorphosed from the shape of a young man to that of a small child with a large overbite.

"He does that," Danny said dismissively. "Don't worry about it."

"Indeed," said Clockwork, his voice as rich as it ever was in spite of his form. "Well, my friends, Danny is quite right: I know who you are, and I know why you are here."

"Can you help us?" Garrett asked quickly.

"That," said Clockwork, "is difficult. I can transport any being from any place and any time _to_ any place and any time."

"Yeah, right, so there's no problem," said Danny. "New York, nineteen ninety-seven, as if you didn't know."

"But it is not that simple," said Clockwork, changing form again as he spoke, this time to an emaciated old man with a long white beard. "These people are not from our world, Danny. They are from another time and another place."

Roland blinked. "You mean like a parallel universe?"

"Indeed."

"_What_?" exclaimed Danny. "You mean you can't send them home?"

"I cannot send them directly home at this time, no."

"But I didn't think they'd be from a parallel universe! That's completely stupid!"

"Why is it?" Clockwork asked reasonably. "Danny, in our world they are legend. Don't you think you might have heard a _little_ something about them if they had lived in New York seven years ago?"

"Aw man." Danny buried his face in his hands, muttered something inaudible, and then looked up. "Clockwork, dude, there has_ got_ to be a way around this. Hey, I know - send me back in time again!"

Clockwork, as he returned to the form of the younger man, looked pained. "Danny…"

"I'll go back in time and… and stop myself from persuading them to come here."

"Danny, it won't work. Have your experiences with me taught you nothing?"

"Or I could go back in time to when Vlad closed the portal, and stop - "

"Danny, no!" exclaimed Kylie. "I _really_ don't want you getting hurt again on our account."

"There is something you have all failed to grasp," Clockwork said gently. "Vlad has been able to open a portal to your world. Why can you not do the same?"

"We don't know how," Eduardo said curtly.

"There is," said Clockwork, "a book, I believe?"

Eduardo raised his eyebrows. "Is that how Vlad opened the portal?"

"It is."

"Well that's no use. We don't have it anymore." Eduardo looked at Danny and said, "We left it with Egon and Janine, didn't we, Danny?"

"That is unfortunate," said Clockwork, changing to his child form.

"No it's not, it's fine," Danny said brightly. "I'll just go back in time to before Vlad got the book, and - "

"Danny," said Clockwork. "I wish you would learn to consider your ideas carefully before blurting them out like that. You simply _cannot_ get that book before Vlad does. Think of the paradox it would create."

"All right," said Danny, scowling deeply. "So what do _you_ suggest?"

"Observe," said Clockwork and, with a gesture of his chubby little arm, drew their attention to a white circular screen a few yards above their heads. "Three people have seen the book where you left it, Daniel, so there it must stay for a time - unless you wish to create _another_ alternate universe that you later have to come back and beg me to let you alter."

"All right, all right, you made your point," Danny said irritably.

"Observe," said Clockwork, becoming the old man once again.

The four Ghostbusters bit back their questions as a moving image began to appear on the screen. It showed Vlad in the firehouse basement, about to disappear into the portal.

"Oh," he said, as something apparently caught his eye. "My book. What a despicable little thief young Daniel is. Well, I have no use for it now - you may keep it. If the wretched boy had only left it where he found it, he might have had a chance to return your infuriating friends to you, but now I think…"

Vlad disappeared into the portal, and Egon and Janine's voices became audible from somewhere off-screen. Clockwork held up a hand; the image paused, and then suddenly they were seeing Egon and Janine, freeze-framed in the middle of what looked like a heated discussion.

"There," said Clockwork, pointing to an indiscernible object in the background. "The book is behind them, Danny. You can fly in unobserved, grab the book and take it into the portal. But you _must_ get back into that portal before it closes, or I will not be able to retrieve you. Are you willing to take the risk?"

"How long will I have?" asked Danny.

"Seconds. Watch."

Clockwork, now a young man again, restarted the moving images.

"HEY!" cried Janine, hitching up the proton gun in her hand.

"Don't!" Egon put a hand on her arm. "Janine, he's human."

"So what? He's a psychopath is what heis! He'll -!"

"And there," said Clockwork, "the portal starts to close. That is how much time you will have, Danny."

"It seems awful risky, Danny," said Roland.

"Ha! No way," said Danny, not sounding as confident as he probably meant to. "It's plenty of time. I can fly at a hundred and twelve miles per hour, I'll have you know. I'll just turn invisible, whip in the second Vlad turns round, grab the book and be back through that portal before you can blink. No problem."

"Danny…" said Roland.

"Guys, look," said Danny. "I _know_ you don't want me to _not_ do this. It's the only way of getting you home. So let's just get on with it, shall we?" He turned to Clockwork. "I'm ready. The Ghost Zone, right by that portal, sometime between Vlad showing up and leaving - right?"

"Right," said Clockwork, transforming into the child as he lifted his sceptre. "Best of luck, Danny."

With these words, Danny was gone.

"Wow!" exclaimed Kylie. "So you can… to any time? And any place?" She looked back at the screen. "Can you watch it all on that thing as well?"

"I can," said Clockwork.

"Whoa!" She no longer felt afraid of this place, but was gazing around her with wide, childlike eyes. "Can you show us what happens to Danny and Sam down the line?"

"Well," said Clockwork, "there isn't really a great deal of time, Kylie."

"I kinda wanna see how Danny's doing with that book," added Garrett.

"Of course," said Clockwork. "He will have to wait a few minutes - I thought I had better give him time to prepare before he swoops in. Time enough to give you this, at any rate."

Clockwork reached into his robes and pulled out a video tape, which he handed to Kylie.

"Danny Phantom's greatest adventure," he said. "I see how engrossed you have become in the boy's story - well, this should round it all off nicely for you."

"Yeah?" asked Kylie, turning the tape over in her hand. "How long does it last?"

"A little under an hour, with commercials. There is much you won't see. Danny and his friends have a little more to discover before his greatest triumph - but it all pales into comparison when you watch that, really."

"Do you have everything that happens in this world on tape?" asked Garrett.

"Oh no," said Clockwork, taking on the form of the old man. "I taped that especially for you, Kylie. You'll like it. Just you wait for the bit where they get to the Antarctic."

"All right, don't spoil it for me," said Kylie. "Thank you, I'll watch it as soon as I get back."

"_If_ you get back," said Eduardo. "Could we maybe check on Danny now?"

Clockwork lifted his arm, and the screen flickered into life once again. It showed the Ghost Zone, with a view of the firehouse basement through what was presumably Vlad's portal. The four Ghostbusters watched, holding their breath as Vlad flew into the Ghost Zone. He then floated off-screen, and seconds later the portal began to close.

"Oh no, Danny, please…" murmured Roland.

"Hey." Kylie squinted at the screen. "The book's gone."

"Don't be ridiculous, Kylie," said Garrett. "How can you possibly tell from -?"

But then suddenly Danny materialised just in front of where the portal had been, with the book in his right hand. Smiling with satisfaction, Clockwork lifted his sceptre. The Danny in the image disappeared, only to materialise right in front of them.

"Hey, I did it!" he exclaimed, holding up the book triumphantly and beaming all over his face.

"Well done, Danny, I knew you would," beamed Roland.

"Yes," said Clockwork. "So did I."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Of course you did. You couldn't possibly tell _me_ that, though, could you? So what exactly did that teach me? Selflessness? Taking responsibility for my actions?"

"Valuable lessons indeed," said Clockwork.

"You knew he'd do it?" Eduardo asked dubiously. "Who _are_ you, anyway?"

"I," said Clockwork, changing to the form of the young man, "am the Lord of Time."

"Ah-ha," said Garrett. "And can you get us outta here now?"

"I like things to be as they should be, in _all_ dimensions," said Clockwork. "For this reason I shall do you one last favour and invoke the magic words that will open the portal from that book. Please give it to me, Danny."

Danny handed over the book without protest.

"It will take me a few moments," said Clockwork, as he shrunk and fattened into the form of the child. "Perhaps you would like to take the opportunity to say your goodbyes."

"Right," said Danny, as Clockwork moved a discreet distance away. "Thank you guys for all of your help, and for sticking around when you really didn't have to. I'm sorry I made you come here in the first place. I mean, Vlad would'a' brought you all here anyway, but that's beside the point. And Eddie." His gaze came to rest upon Eduardo. "I'm sorry I lied to you about Vlad."

"Don't sweat it," said Eduardo.

"It was wrong of me to lie," said Danny, in tones that didn't sound rehearsed exactly, but certainly practised. Eduardo suddenly had the impression that Danny ended up apologising to somebody after an escapade rather frequently. "I did it because I didn't want you to think I couldn't handle Vlad."

"I would have never thought that," said Eduardo.

"I guess you wouldn't," said Danny. "But I didn't know that then. I'm sorry."

"Danny," said Eduardo, "it's _ok_."

"Danny, will Valerie be ok?" Roland asked suddenly.

"Valerie?" Danny raised his eyebrows, and then suddenly had to look away. "I'm sure she'll be fine. This guy" - he gestured over his shoulder towards Clockwork - "knows what'll happen to all of us, probably, but the rest of us will just have to wait and see. I really hope it works out for you guys. Hey, Kylie," he added, as the object in Kylie's hand suddenly caught his eye. "What's with the tape?"

"Um… nothing," said Kylie.

"Dude, ok, whatever," shrugged Danny as Clockwork, in the form of the elderly man, approached with the book open at a particular page. "Hey, Clockwork - I don't suppose you can tell me what happens to these guys, can you?"

"Unfortunately not," said Clockwork. "I know only as much as is in this book, which I understand is greatly embellished anyway. Have you read the ending? It is most unsatisfactory. Kylie has the last words. They are, 'Free biscotti.'"

Danny pulled a face. "Lame. That's too bad - I really wanna know what happens to you guys."

"For now," said Clockwork, "they go home. Here." Transforming into the young man, he laid the open book down on the floor. "Step into the page, and you will be transported home. I shall close the portal behind you."

"This is all a bit _Wizard of Oz_, isn't it?" remarked Garrett, as he wheeled his way towards the book. "There's no place like home… Well, Danny, it's been fun. Good luck with the ghost fighting and everything. And thanks for your help, Clockwork - you really didn't have to."

They all said their goodbyes as, one by one, the four Ghostbusters approached the book and disappeared into its lavishly illustrated pages.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"All right," said Egon. "Let's not panic."

"What do you mean, let's not panic!" wailed Janine. "They're stuck there!"

"Well… not necessarily."

"_Yes_ necessarily!"

"Maybe there's something we can - "

"_If_ there's any way for them to get back," said Janine, "I don't see what we can possibly do to help them from here."

"He mentioned the book," said Egon.

"What?"

"Vlad Plasmius said something about Danny regretting taking the book. I got the impression that the book is the key to opening the portal."

Janine raised her eyebrows. "Did you?"

"Yes."

"Well, what if it is? We're still on the wrong side. _If_ that book opens a portal, it'll open it to _our_ world!"

"Well I at least think it's worth investigating," said Egon. "It's the only hope we have."

"True," said Janine, and they both turned and looked around for the book. After a few long seconds of gazing around the room, Janine exclaimed, "It's gone!"

"Hey, don't panic - we got back ok on our own."

Egon and Janine both jumped, and then spun around sharply to see Garrett wheeling himself out of a green vortex in the wall.

"How…?" began Egon.

Roland came out of the portal next, followed by Kylie, and finally Eduardo.

"We thought we'd lost you!" said Janine.

"Yeah, well, fortunately Danny's knows some very influential people," said Kylie, still clutching her video tape. "He wouldn't have let us get stuck there. Listen, you guys - I'm sorry I just blundered into that portal without having the first clue what I was getting us into. I was just curious."

"I understand," said Egon. "I was curious myself. I would have liked to talk more with Jack and Maddie Fenton, but… How do we close that?"

"Um…" said Kylie.

The four younger Ghostbusters turned round, wondering whether they were expected to do anything now that they had finished with the portal. They had all assumed that Clockwork would close it once they were safely through, but evidently he hadn't.

Then suddenly Danny's head popped out of the vortex. "Hey," he said.

"Danny!" exclaimed Roland. "What are you doing here? You weren't supposed to follow us."

"Don't worry, it's cool," said Danny, floating out of the portal with his Fenton Thermos clutched in his right hand. "Clockwork was about to close the portal, but then I remembered I still had one of the Furies in my thermos, so I asked if I could come and drop her off and he said I could."

"Who's Clockwork?" asked Janine.

"He's the Lord of Time," said Danny.

Egon cocked an eyebrow. "Is he?"

"He's very benevolent, Danny, isn't he?" remarked Kylie.

Danny shrugged. "Seems to be. I think he just likes things to be the way they're supposed to - kind of like Jazz being lord of her room and getting all pissed if anyone messes it up. He _did_ say that it didn't really matter which universe the Furies were in, as long as they're together. So let's get her in that containment thing, shall we?"

"Where's the other one?" asked Egon. "If there's one in the containment unit and one in that thermos device…"

"Here," said Kylie, unhooking the loaded trap from her back. "We'll need another trap - and we're going to have to let her out of that thermos first."

It was nice, for once in a way, to have all the time they needed in which to prepare for an attack. Kylie, Roland, Garrett and Eduardo all readied their proton guns while Egon went to retrieve a trap. He then positioned the trap in the middle of the floor and gave a nod to Danny, who pushed a button on his thermos and released its prisoner.

"You foul little upstart!" she yelled, rounding angrily upon Danny. "What did you do with Tisiphone and Alecto?"

"I never _touched_ Alecto," Danny said defensively. "These guys did something with her."

Megeara looked about to continue the argument, but then screamed as she was suddenly caught in four proton streams. She was trapped within seconds, and then Danny was blinking down at the smoking device with a look of polite interest on his face.

"So… you can put them into your ghost prison now?" he asked.

"Sure," said Kylie. "You wanna watch, or is Clockwork expecting you back?"

"I guess I can keep him waiting another couple of minutes," said Danny, falling into step beside Kylie as she - still carrying the video tape and one of the traps - followed Egon over to the containment unit. "This thing's not exactly what you might call huge, is it? Isn't there a limit to the number of ghosts you can get in there?"

"Oh, it's bigger on the inside," said Egon. "I don't anticipate any problems with space - _you_ know how ghosts are, Danny. But I suppose there are no guarantees."

"I could sure do with something like that," said Danny, watching as Egon began the process of flushing Megeara into the containment unit. "I don't suppose maybe you could give me, like, some blueprints or - "

"Danny."

They all turned round to see Clockwork - in his elderly and bearded form - floating by the newly opened portal.

"No."

"Oh," said Danny, staring at Clockwork in surprise. "Well, I guess this means I gotta go. Goodbye again, you guys. Hey." He had begun walking back towards the portal, but stopped beside Eduardo and floated up to the level of his ear, where he said quietly, "She _wants_ you, dude. You should give her a little kiss."

Eduardo blinked. "What, now?"

"No, later. Get her on her own." Danny grinned. "Good luck with it."

"Yeah," Eduardo said dryly, as Danny flew towards the portal. "Right back at ya."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Get her on her own, Danny had said. Eduardo was reluctant, but he told himself that if he _did_ follow Kylie into the kitchen, he didn't have to take it any further if it didn't seem the right time for him to do so.

She was getting a soda out of the fridge. When Kylie turned and saw Eduardo standing in the doorway, she said, "That was fantastic, wasn't it? It had _exactly_ the right mix of action, humour and emotional character stuff."

Eduardo smiled slightly. "What, like the romance?"

"Oh yes." Kylie nodded fervently. "That was the best bit."

"I noticed you smiling all over your face when he kissed her. I've never seen you so enthusiastic about anything that wasn't paranormal."

"It was a _bit_ paranormal."

"The kiss wasn't."

"No," said Kylie, "_they_ weren't. He kissed her twice, don't forget. I liked her. I liked him too, in spite of his very obvious faults - I want things to work out for them."

"They're only fourteen," Eduardo reminded her, "and they didn't look any older on that tape than they did today. They might break up by the time they're our age."

Kylie wrinkled her nose. "Oh, shut up - they're meant to be together."

"I hope so," said Eduardo. "I liked them too."

"That," said Kylie, "was the best TV kiss I have _ever_ seen. The way he cupped her chin, and then grabbed her head when they were getting into it… that was _so awesome_!"

"Yeah?" Eduardo raised his eyebrows. "Do _you_ wanna be kissed like that, Kylie, is that it?"

She smiled. "Who _doesn't_ wanna be kissed like that? I wouldn't mind being carried off into the moonlight either - that was a great ending."

"It was _Superman_."

"It was romantic."

Eduardo wondered what to say. I'd take you in my arms and fly you into the moonlight if I could? Oh God, no.

"I wish I knew what happened next," said Kylie.

"It was a good place to leave it."

"I guess."

Eduardo began to suspect that he had missed his opportunity. If only he'd been standing a bit nearer to her.

"_Do _you _wanna be kissed like that, Kylie, is that it?"_

"_Who _doesn't_ wanna be kissed like that?"_

_Wham._

"Sorry - do _you_ want a soda?"

"Er, yeah," said Eduardo. "Thanks."

He made a point of brushing fingers with her when he took the soda can from her hand. It felt like a step in the right direction.

THE END


End file.
